Espionage
by HotCrossBunnies
Summary: Chloe gets more than she bargained for when she goes undercover.
1. Chapter 1

**Espionage / Special Agent Blonde**

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing and am making no money out of writing this fanfiction.

**Rating:** M just to be on the safe side, could probably get away with a T.

**Summary: **Chloe gets more than she bargained for when she goes undercover.

**Part One**

The music was pounding and the strobe lights flashed in her face, but Chloe Sullivan would not be deterred. Her fake ID had worked like a charm, the bouncers had just exchanged rather too knowing glances before letting her in, she had known that raiding Lois' wardrobe would pay off. That would make a good story actually, the different treatment people received based purely on their looks …

Her slightly more provocative way of dressing was certainly making an impact, she had noticed several men giving her the eye as she had made her way through the gyrating masses which filling the club. Maybe if she wore a red halter top to school Clark would notice her. Fat chance, he was of the Lexian school of thought: a girl had to have long dark hair and be slightly exotic looking to get Clark's attention.

She wished that the creature that she was now trying to flirt with thought the same way. It wasn't the first time that she had used her feminine wiles to get a story, but it was the first time that any man had looked at her in quite this manner. He openly looked her up and down, licking his lips and openly leering at her.

"You want to get into the VIP section?" He asked with a laugh.

"Yes", Chloe shouted over the music, wondering if going to a club was always this much effort.

"And why should I let you in?" The man asked, with a wink. He ran his fingers through his overly long, overly gelled hair.

The look that he was giving her, made Chloe's skin crawl and she had to fight her instinct to kick him – an instinct that both Lois and her father had nurtured since she was a tot. She had to get this story, she had not spent weeks planning and researching this lead just to be turned back now.

"I am a friend of Laura's, she asked me to come", Chloe tried. She had been hoping to keep Laura's name out of this, however by tomorrow morning the police would be all over the place and their little enterprise would be over forever.

"A friend of Laura's you say", he said looking doubtful, Laura was a common name after all.

Chloe sighed, she could see that this was getting her nowhere, she scanned her surroundings. Behind her was a sea of people, no business could be conducted out there, she had to get passed this repellent human being and the bouncers who flanked him to get up to the VIP section. If she strained her neck, Chloe could just see far enough over his shoulder to make out not only the staircase which would lead to the VIP section - which sat above the main dance floor and which was slightly protected from the noise - on his left, but also the long hallway behind it with corridors leading off it in all directions.

"You in the same line of business as Laura?" He asked.

"Yeah", Chloe nodded and then smiled sexily up at him. Slowly she placed her hand on his upper arm and leant in close to him, "It is rather noisy out here, isn't there somewhere a little more quiet that we could go to um … discuss the matter?"

She had won, she knew it even more he nodded and showed her through to the more exclusive area of the club. As they made their way down one of the passageways Chloe kept her eyes peeled for any signs of movement. On the dance floor she had not been worried, no one would have been able to recognise her in amongst the crowd but now here, alone and in the almost clinical light that characterised the backstage areas she would prefer to be seen by as few people as possible.

Still she was desperate for a glimpse of her informant Laura and any sign of the crimes that she knew took place there. Chloe could not help the prickle of apprehension that ran across her skin; something was wrong. The man she had had to talk around was not supposed to be there that night, it was supposed to be Laura's friend. And where was Laura? She often went down to talk to the bouncers and had planned on trying to distract them whilst Chloe snuck in. Something must have gone wrong. Chloe knew that she should cut her loses and get out of there as fast as she possibly could, but her journalist's curiosity was simply too strong. She had to find out what was going on.

As they rounded the corner, Chloe saw that they were now at the very end of the building, there was a fire door right next to the office door with which her companion was now struggling - that could come in very handy for an escape later. Chloe glanced down at her watch, 10pm - she only had a few hours to get her information and get back to Lois' dorm before her cousin got home.

"Work by the hour?" The man leered, as he finally succeeded in opening the door.

"Something like that", Chloe responded as she followed him into the room, letting the door close behind her.

The office was small and dingy, there were no filing cabinets or boxes just a mattress on the floor and a small wardrobe, it was clear that she wasn't going to get any information from here.

He advanced on her.

"Ah ah ah", she tisked playfully, stepping just out of his reach. In his drunken state he wobbled slightly. "First things first", she rummaged around in her clutch for a few seconds before handing a small container to her would-be lover.

The grin he gave her revealed to her what few teeth he had left and what a terrible state they were in. He opened the pot and took a pinch of the powder contained therein. It did not cool his ardour, he once again attempted to move closer to her but once again Chloe neatly stepped out of his way leading him back around in a circle until she was standing with her back to the wardrobe.

She gave him a flirtatious smile, "Come and get me".

He needed no further encouragement, he launched himself at her. Chloe - with a nimbleness that would have shocked her former, constantly critical ballet teacher - hopped to the side, opened the door, yanked the keys off his belt and slammed the door on him then using his own keys to lock it.

"Men are so easy", she mused as she made her way back out of the office locking the door after herself. It was fortunate for her that all of the doors were thick metal ones through which sound could not travel. She had no doubt that the troll would still be locked up tomorrow morning when the police arrived, even if he did regain consciousness before then.

Chloe slipped her container, along with her new found keys, into the pocket of her dress. The bulge that it made was not a particularly fetching one, but as it was her get out of jail free card she couldn't afford to lose it.

She said a quick thank-you to her Uncle Sam as retraced her steps and then slipped up the staircase to the VIP section without the bouncers noticing, she was certain that the three star general had had no clue what that powder would really be used for when he had given a bit to his daughter and niece.

Down below she had not been able to see the attraction of clubs, but upstairs it was a different story. The music which had been deafening below was just right up here, and instead of having countless people smushed together there was actually room to dance on the exclusive dance floor with enclaves leading off it in every direction. From what she could make out, every enclave had a table and several chairs where the patrons could fraternise, that is where the majority of the people were – the rest were scattered across the dance floor, with a few at the bar and some stationed at the balcony surveying the writhing hoard below.

Chloe searched the area for Laura but find her, or any of the other people she had been told to keep a look out for. Some of the enclaves had the curtains drawn over them so it was possible that they were in there, although unlikely considering how many people were missing and it wasn't as if she could go and poke her head around the curtains, she was inquisitive but not stupid.

One balance she decided that the best thing to do would be to go to the bar and see what she could try to get out of the bartender, she had always had a way with the people at the bottom, they generally worked for tips after all.

There were quite a few stools empty, she fought against her first urge to sit at the end of the bar nearest the exit, although it would make for a better escape plan should anything go wrong, it would also make her the first point of focus for anyone coming up the stairs. She opted for the middle, hoping that that would make her less visible, and called the bartender over.

She gave him a winning smile to his question about what she would like to drink, "Vodka" she replied. She clutched her bag for a second as she said this, wondering whether she should offer him her ID straight away to show that she had nothing to hide or whether people who had managed to get into the VIP area even needed IDs. Maybe it was just assumed that they would be served without question, whether they were obviously under aged or not. Maybe offering ID would make her stand out.

Apparently she had made the right decision to delay handing over her ID as, with a snort, he handed her the beverage and warned, "Go easy on it, it is stronger than you might think".

Chloe smiled, having no intention of actually drinking it. She remembered – or rather, she didn't remember but had been told all about – the lovely dance she had done last year at her cousin's 18th when someone had got hold of a couple of bottles of wine for the celebration. She couldn't afford to lose focus tonight.

It was a good job that she had her betting money with her, as the drink – that she wasn't even going to drink! - cost almost as much as they pair of jeans she had coveted the week before but hadn't brought, even though they were on sale, due to her father's difficult financial situation.

She hated Lionel Luthor! He had done so many terrible things and even now that he was in jail the blacklist did not appear to have been lifted from them. Her father was still out of work and the Daily Planet was ignoring her … well that would soon change when she got the dirt on this operation. The Daily Planet would beg her to come back, Luthor Corp would do anything to keep it quiet, including giving her Dad his job back, thousands of women would be set free and the truth would be known.

It was with these altruistic goals in mind that Chloe pretended to take a sip of her drink and surveyed the scene once more. After she had done this for a few minutes she turned back to the bar and sighed, she knew that the bartender was watching her. He was young, probably just trying to pay his way through college and it couldn't be easy to do this job every day. It wouldn't surprise her if he were a little lonely.

"Looking for your friends?" He asked, moving closer to her.

"Yeah, but it looks like they have stood me up", her lips tried to form a weak smile she had perfected for Pete's benefit every time that Clark had let her down.

"A lot of people won't be coming in tonight. They changed half of the staff over", he explained, as he looked both ways. There was no one near enough to overhear their conversation.

"Why?"

He sighed. "Look, I know that it is none of my business but you seem like a nice girl. You are no way near old enough to be here and if you are looking for someone who isn't here tonight then you are looking for someone who is up to no good. Why don't you just go home?"

Chloe was oddly touched by this, although also annoyed; she had thought that she had been doing a very good impression of a worldly wise sophisticate.

"Why have they all left?" She asked, only just loudly enough to be heard.

The dark haired youth looked at her intently for a second before saying, "The son of a former investor is arriving tonight to discuss business, they don't want to give themselves away in front of him. In fact, if you are thinking about going into this line of work, you will probably be chucked out pretty soon. They are desperate not to have anyone find out".

"Hmm", Chloe murmured as she took another pretend sip of her drink. So that was why no one she was looking for was around, there really was little point in staying in that case, it was just unnecessary danger. She could slip out down the stairs and out the back way right now before anyone noticed her and be in a cab on the way to Lois' within five minutes.

She looked at the time, 11pm. She could even get some homework done.

Chloe gave the bartender a genuine smile, "Thanks".

As she stood up to leave, she asked, "By the way, what's your name?"

"Jimmy", he extended his hand to her.

"Lana", she shook it and then headed for the staircase. She would just have to come back another day, although how she was going to manage that she had not quite worked out yet. Her father had not been too pleased at the idea of her missing a day of school to go and stay with Lois for a night and a day, even if it had been to attend a seminar. The school had been slightly easier, agreeing to just send her with the work, although she was not sure that that would work again. But what choice did she have if no one was going to be there tonight?

Her thoughts travelled to Laura, and to the man in the closet downstairs, she had wanted this to be resolved tonight. If it weren't, then tomorrow would be another night when Laura had to give herself to men for money, and by tomorrow Chloe's cover could be blown by the captured man. She would be powerless to help.

"Damn it", she hissed. It was just her luck that everything would go wrong and no one would be there tonight, she only needed one photo of the men in charge, to prove that they had been on US soil and that – coupled with her documents – sent to the police would close the whole ring down within 24 hours. She did not have enough without the picture to go to the police, but it didn't look like she was going to get it now in any case.

She didn't have enough, but if she could find out who this business man was that they were all so clearly afraid of, she could send him the documents. He could get the extra information – and presumably would, if they were all this scared of him sniffing out what they were up to – and everything would be resolved just as quickly. It goaded her that she was going to lose her story, but it was more important to do the right thing.

With that in mind, she moved to the side at the top of the staircase as she heard a large group of people coming.

Chloe could only just make out snippets of their conversation, something about clearing the area, this must be the man she was waiting for. Carefully, she moved into position so that she could see the face of every person who passed and her jaw almost hit the floor.

"Oh fuck it!"

**If you have read, please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

Lex loosened his tie as he made his way up the spiral staircase, he had been in the boardroom all day and felt as if he were choking to death. The management of LuthorCorp was nothing new to him, it was what he had been trained for, getting to the bottom Lionel's seemingly endless string of 'extracurricular earnings' was another matter. So far he had discovered: several illegal genetic projects, two diamond mines and a string of Latin American supermarkets, amongst hundreds of minor business ventures which were all incorrectly registered. Such clerical mistakes might not have bothered anyone else; they may have just been happy to accept the extra revenue no questions asked but Lex was a Luthor and he always asked questions and demanded answers.

He had gone up against his father far too often to take any risks, even behind bars Lionel was a dangerous foe. Lex needed to have all of the information! He needed to know where every last cent of his father's money was, who his connections were, and how all of these businesses fitted together – it was no accident that they were left unaccounted for. Only then could Lex be sure that he would remain on top and that he could adequately protect his assets.

That was why he was there. He had only found out about this particular club a few hours ago and as he was planning on returning to Smallville the following morning, he had decided that he had better check it out immediately.

A couple of years ago this would have been his idea of a great night out, now it more closely resembled a chore. A few shots and the company of a pretty girl would have made it more bearable but as he had made quite clear upon his arrival, he was there for business not pleasure. Lex was certain that this was one of his father's more sinister plots, rather than just a way to fox the IRS; however successful a club was it should not have been yielding his father (and now Lex) over two million dollars a month.

Still, as Lex perused the scene, mentally trying to tally up how much revenue he should be seeing from the place, he felt his attention being dragged away from arithmetic at various intervals - he was trying to be a better man but temptation always came in such delicious packages. There were many gorgeous women there that night, some wearing very little and the majority of them were paying him a great deal of attention. Sometimes it was good to be young and rich. In his position there was no reason why he couldn't conduct business and find a play thing for the night as that was all that she would be, a play thing. There was no chance that any of the women present could hold his attention for more than a few minutes – if that – or divert him from the task at hand. He had made it a point to avoid women who could.

No, instead of spending another night in and alone thinking about errant blondes, he would make his business deals and solve the mystery within half an hour then pick up something nice to do for the evening on the way out and wake-up tomorrow not even remembering her name and ready to get on his helicopter back to Smallville.

He did his best not to snort when as he thought of Smallville, he had better get his fill of society and women whilst he was still in Metropolis. Here he was spoilt for choice; even now that Lex and his security team were out of the crowd and halfway up the stairs to the VIP section, there were still beautiful girls dotted around the place. He was looking for his normal tall, olive skinned brunette and was so busy trying to choose between the blued eyed one smiling at him or the green eyed one next to her – would it be too greedy to choose both? – that he probably wouldn't have noticed the blonde in the corner of the stairwell had she not drawn attention to herself by uttering an expletive, presumably in shock.

He spared her a quick glance, slightly amused; that wasn't the response that he was used to eliciting from females. Flirting, being coy, giggling to their friends behind their hands: yes. Swearing: no – well not outside the bedroom, at any rate. He wondered whether she was just shocked to see him there or whether he did not look like his pictures.

Shadows clung to the girl's form, tucked away in the corner as she was, but he could still make out the horrified expression on her usually suborn face and realised why she had sworn, he was a hair's breadth away from swearing himself. What the hell was Chloe Sullivan doing there?

Lex had always prided himself on being quick off the mark, but he must have been more stunned by the presence of the nosey reporter than he had thought. Before he could completely wrap his mind around the situation or open his mouth to say anything, one of the club's guards had reacted, grabbing her arms in a grip which was painfully tight - if the expression on Chloe's face was anything to go by. Lex felt his palms itching.

"I'm sorry Mr. Luthor, I don't know what she's doing up here", the giant of a man apologized. "She isn't one of the ones we allowed up". He added, seeming ill at ease.

No one else said anything, some not even daring to breathe as they concentrated on Lex. The only person who seemed more annoyed than worried was Chloe, although as Lex focused his gaze on her he was certain that he had detected a flicker of fear in her eyes. As if realising that she had given too much a way she redoubled her efforts to shake off her captor but that only succeeded in making him yank her back against him harder. The movement drew a sound of pain from her lips.

Lex fixed him with a look that would have made Goliath rethink his actions and the man visibly paled - if he had known what Lex was actually considering doing to the bastard then he would probably have passed out from fear. Satisfied that his control was recognised, Lex considered his options. He could be direct: he could just tell them to let her go, grab her and take her home, no one would think to stop him but something inside him did. He had a bad feeling about this, she wasn't one of the ones they had allowed up? Why would they be so worried about her presence? The young Luthor took a step forwards, sneering slightly. There was no reason for him to reveal his weakness to anyone. He would figure this out before they even realised that he was on to them.

They had no way of knowing who Chloe Sullivan was, he doubted that any of them read The Torch. As far as they knew she was just a pretty girl who was hanging around the VIP section. Strike that, she was an incredible sexy girl who was just hanging around the VIP section. Where had Chloe got those clothes and that make up from? He had not been able to help noticing that her wardrobe had become a little less baggy this year, but this took form fitting to a whole new level. If she decided to dress like that on a daily basis, even Clark would have to take notice.

Lex had to struggle not to smirk at the mental image of Clark examining Chloe's new wardrobe, the farm boy would probably have a heart attack. He wondered whether he could convince her to dress like that every day, it would certainly make small town life more interesting. Actually, based on the attention that she was now soliciting from the men around him – they seemed to find their gaze flitting back to her ever so often, however hard they tried to keep their focus on Lex - she should only wear clothes like that for him, in his mansion. Oh God, what was he thinking? He didn't think about Chloe like that! He couldn't let himself get distracted especially not when he had a mystery to solve, he had not spent the last few months ignoring her to protect her only to lose his self-control now.

There was no reason why the guards and management should have been worried about her being there, as there were always one or two girls who talked their way passed the bouncers, so what did they think she was? And what did they think was she doing there? Come to that, what was she doing there? And how had she got into the club in the first place? How had she got into the VIP section?

Chloe's presence meant that there was a story. So he had been right, something sinister was afoot. If there was one thing that Chloe Sullivan was good at discovering it was trouble … and Luthor family secrets, but that didn't mean that he was going to let her get in any deeper. He should just let them chuck her out, she had no business being there, but something told him that they wouldn't just let her leave. They might be suspicious, they might hurt her. He felt his fists clenching again and tried to relax them.

Deciding on his course of action, Lex gave his audience his best arrogant smirk, "She probably just wanted to meet me".

Chloe's skin had almost been buzzing with excitement as she had worked out how to break her story, but upon seeing Lex her blood had turned to ice. Being discovered by anyone she knew would have been bad enough but there was a chance that a normal human being would have been kind enough not to blow her cover, but she was fairly sure that Lex would ruin her just for fun. She had tried to turn and run but the guard had been too quick for her. She closed her eyes in a mixture of mortification and dread, how on earth was she going to get out of this one?

The one good thing, she supposed, was that she was certain that Lex wouldn't be mixed up in anything _this_ shady so she would be able to report it. She knew that she should have been happy about this, but she wasn't. She was angry. If he had just waited one more day then she could have collected all of her information, called the police, written her article and blackmailed him into letting her father have his job back. Instead, she was going to be humiliated and it was all _Lex's _fault!

She tried, unsuccessfully, to yank her arm from the vice like grip as her mind was raced to come up with a plan to get herself out of this mess when she heard Lex offer her one. Did he really just imply that she had gone through all of this to meet him? She stared at him in shock, would that really stand up as a reason for her being there? Would anyone really buy that? Judging by the expressions on the faces of their small audience, yes they would.

"Isn't that right, baby?" Lex asked again, closing the gap between them. Chloe gulped, the bruising pressure exerted upon her arms had cessed, she was finally free to make a break for it but she felt as if were held still far more tightly than before as Lex advanced. She had tried to tell herself that she had no other escape plan – which was the truth – but that was not the reason her feet refused to move. She had always known that he was attractive, she had more than her fair share of adolescent fantasies about him, but he had never taken her breath away like he did now nor had she been held so captive by his gaze.

Chloe had never seen him looking quite so dishevelled before, it suited him. His designer jacket was slung carelessly over one broad shoulder, his tie was loose as were the first two buttons of his shirt revealing a glimpse of warm, soft looking skin. When she dared to raise her eyes to meet his, she saw a predatory look in them thitherto fore unknown - it should have scared rather than thrilled her.

She swallowed and nodded in response to his question, trying to avoid noticing the smug smirk that tugged at his lips. He was going to make her pay. Slowly, and with excruciating exactness, he drank in the sight of her, from her ruffled blonde hair, down her made-up face, her red halter top, her short black skirt, her black tights right down to her combat boots. He didn't make her feel unclean as others had, but she would have sorely liked to slap him, the only thing that stopped her was knowing that she had to keep up the act of being interested in him – at least until she could think of a better plan.

"Very nice", he purred as he reversed his perusal. It was a lot more difficult to keep his expression in place after he had seen those boots - they were just so her! - though they did nothing to quell his anger. He was absolutely bloody furious and becoming in greater danger of losing his self-control with every passing second. He had not lived in agony for months, watching looped footage of her in that damned safe house, longing to visit her, to talk to her but not being able to just for her to go and get herself into trouble. Damn it, he had had a full security team following her every move since the beginning of the school year, even as outwardly ignored her and let her think that he had forgotten all about her, just to make sure that she was always safe.

He did not know how his men had lost her – last he had heard she was spending the evening in her cousin's dorm –, that was a problem that he would address as soon as they were back in Smallville, but he had found her here so she was his responsibility. It was not enough to protect her this time, he needed to make sure that she would never get herself into this predicament again, he was determined to show her that men in the city - especially the ones who frequented clubs like this one – could not be trusted and that she should not be running around dressed like that.

"Join us at our table", he requested in a tone that sounded more like an order.

"Um, thank-you, I can't. My Dad will wonder where I am, you see, it's passed my curfew", Chloe said in a slightly breathy voice, no one seemed to believe that she was the right age anyway so she might as well use it to make her escape.

The men surrounding her laughed, "I'm sure it is", one of the coughed.

Lex snaked his arm around her waist, "Well if you are already in trouble, then you might as well stay and have some fun". He paused for a moment before adding with a grin, "I promise to return you to him after breakfast". This elicited another chuckle from his companions.

"No, I really must be going", Chloe placed her hands on his chest to push him back and was surprised by how firm he was, and how unyielding.

"I think not". Lex allowed his hand to travel further down her back until it caressed her behind, delighting in the shuddering breath he felt rather than saw her take. She wanted to kill him, he was certain. Had the situation not been so potentially dangerous for her, he would have found her expression hilarious - she was so clearly trying to resist throttling him. Well, she had got herself into this situation, she would have to learn what it was like to lose control … after all, she was lucky that it was only him.

Colour suffused Chloe's cheeks; this was not how she had thought that this night would end.

"I think that I'd better go …" Once again she made to leave but found that her hand was being gently held captive in Lex's much larger one.

"Aw, she's gone all shy", Lex announced to his cronies, before proceeding to nuzzle her neck and whisper, "There's no escape Miss Sullivan". Shivers ran up and down her spine as he engulfed her, he smelled so good and she thought that her knees would buckle as he gently nipped her ear lobe. Her mind revolted at such weakness, had it been anyone but Lex these moves would have had no effect but still she should have more control than this.

She was surrounded by him, she might just have been able to fight him off had he really meant to hurt her but there was no way that she could get away from the others. Suddenly the foolishness of her mission crashed over her as she looked directly into Lex's eyes. He was going to torture her for the rest of the night; they both knew it and she would have to let him without causing a fuss because she couldn't get away from him until he decided that she was allowed to. She was completely at his mercy, and she didn't like it one little bit!

Chloe was fortunate really, she could have been in a far worse situation. Tomorrow everything would be sorted out, and for now she was safe because it was Lex, not some other guy and she should have been grateful to him but at that moment she could not help but feel a surge of hatred towards him.

Lex gestured in the direction of VIP section and for once Chloe acquiesced, walking ahead of him with only a slight huff. Although she had been able to move with relative anonymity before, now that she had been singled out by Lex Luthor as his companion for the evening all eyes were on her - judging her, and probably trying to work out what he saw in her. So much for not being recognised later, at least the lights were still relatively dark.

Two of Luthor's private security stayed near the entrance but the rest had headed over to the table ahead of Chloe, helpfully indicating exactly where she was supposed to be heading. One of them pulled out a chair for her, but before Chloe could seat herself she felt herself being pulled down and backwards. Lex, who had been strolling a step or two behind her, had caught up and decided that the safest place for her was in his lap.

Chloe tried her best not to balk at this treatment as she did not want to draw even more attention to herself and wasn't sure whether most girls - or most girls stupid enough to end up in a situation like this, at any rate - might not like Lex's attention. Instead she buried her own face in his neck and hissed, "I'll get you for this".

Lex pulled his head back so that he could look her straight in the eye; he wanted her to be able to fully appreciate his arrogant smile. "I look forward to it".

His lips twitched even more as he was fairly sure he heard Chloe growl. It was so rare that he got the upper hand in his dealings with her that he was determined to make the most of it. As Lex discussed the business with his colleges, who all seemed to be drinking and womanizing as well, he allowed his hand to run slowly up and down Chloe's back, enjoying the light hitch in her breath every time his fingers grazed bare flesh.

He was so preoccupied with his diverting game that he found it difficult to focus on the business arrangements, this was certainly not a problem that he usually had – several of his best business phone calls had been made whilst he was um … relaxing. Had it not been for the fact that there was obviously something nefarious going on that he needed to uncover he would probably have given up entirely, but as it was he tried to ignore the warmth of Chloe's body pressed against him.

The meeting was rather uninformative and although he had not expected them to come right out and tell him what they had been up to with his father, he had not expected them to hide it particularly either. This type of man generally believed that everyone was as crooked as he was, and based on some of the press that the Luthors received Lex wouldn't really have been able to refute such an assumption. Had he not known better, he would have said that there was nothing underhand about this meeting, someone listening in would certainly not have gleaned any useful information, for which he was as grateful and he was irritated. He wanted to discover the truth, but the less that Chloe knew about all of this the better so it was probably for the best that they were not discussing anything of consequence.

It was only when they started talking figures that he grew concerned by Chloe's presence at the table. The numbers they were discussing were so obviously made up and the services they were referring to probably didn't even exist, someone like Chloe would easily hunt down the truth with that much ammo.

Lex didn't doubt that she would be listening to all of this and storing it in her overly developed brain, but still memory played tricks on people. He knew that better than anyone thanks to his father. So, unless she had a recording then he didn't have to … he could feel her hand moving slightly against his stomach and hidden from the view of everyone else at the table. It was with a groan that he realised that she had got her phone out and had been recording everything they had said. Just as he had been trying to distract her with his hands, she had been distracting him with her little sighs and shaky breathing - she had just done it much much better! He should have known that it would take more than a few lingering caresses to distract Chloe Sullivan.

Well he would never have expected her to let an opportunity like this slip through her fingers. But that didn't mean that he was going to let her get away with it, she had already almost got killed once because of him and her bloody cell phone, he couldn't go through that again. He would get that phone off her the second that they were alone together and wouldn't let her out of his sight until then, not that he had been planning to anyway. It would be fine as long as she didn't find a way to send it to Clark or someone else equally hot headed before then, he could still feel her fingers moving against him fiddling with her phone. He would have to distract her and get her out of there, post haste.

He resumed his caresses, this time allowing his fingers to run through her hair too, as desperate to feel in control again and to prove to himself that her earlier reactions had not just been a distraction as she gathered information as he was to find an excuse to get out of there.

Chloe almost growled, he must have realised what she was doing as he now seemed intent upon making her loose her mind. Well two could play that game, she wriggled to get more comfortable.

Lex choked on his drink and his eyes watered for a couple of seconds. Chloe, very helpfully, thumped him on the back, "Are you alright, sweetie?" She cooed over him.

"Fine, _darling_", he bit back,

Chloe grinned at him, clearly thinking that she had won.

"In fact", he rose to his feet taking her with him, "as we seem to be done here for this evening, I think that it is time that we get going. I have a feeling that this will be a night that you won't soon forget".

**If you have read, please review. It is just polite.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

The icy wind that whipped around her was so piercing that Chloe was almost grateful for the protection and warmth that Lex's arm afforded her, draped around her shoulders as it was. Almost being the operative word as her natural instinct was still to try to bolt, the only thing that kept her from making the attempt was the warning squeeze Lex gave her, letting her know that there was no real way of escape. If she tried to run, she wouldn't get more than a few meters before being unceremoniously dragged back and she was determined to keep what little remained of her dignity intact.

"Get in", Lex ordered as he held open the door for her; with ill grace Chloe acquiesced. She automatically began to scoot over to make room for Lex only to find that he had slammed the door shut and locked it.

She tried the door and finding that there was no way of unlocking it from the inside, settled back into her seat and looked around the interior, she had not been in a limo since her aunt's funeral and even then she didn't think that it had been as nice as this one. She could just hear Lex's footsteps as he moved around to the other side of the car and she leapt into action. Chloe slipped her phone out of her purse and down her bra, if she knew Lex the first thing that he wanted would be the recording. She was fairly certain that he knew what she had been up to during that meeting.

Her heart raced as she saw the door on the other side of the car opening and Lex slipping into the backseat. His back was to her as he gave some more orders to the driver, and Chloe tried to compose herself, she had no idea how she was going to get out of this. Would he tell her Dad? Where was he taking her? She glanced at her watch again, she only had 20 minutes to get back before Lois.

Scenarios played about in Chloe's head. She could play dumb, deny that her name was Chloe, try to convince him that she was her own cousin … with a fake ID that quite clearly said that her name was Lana Kent. No, that wouldn't work. Maybe she could convince him that it had all been a ploy to meet him as he has suggested to his 'friends', that would probably embarrass him so much that he would back down. Oh no, now she was going crazy. There was no way that she could embarrass Lex. He would probably think her a stupid, insignificant little high school girl who had wanted to party in the VIP section, he didn't know that she was on a mission after all.

She sighed, just as she had been getting closer to Lex she would be put back again. She had hoped that after she had helped him put his father in jail and proved herself to be brave that maybe he could start respect her. She knew that he would never look at her the way that he looked at Lana, and they would probably never be friends but she had at least hoped that he would look on her as something more than Clark's annoying high school friend. Well, there was no hope for that now. He was going to think of her as a slut, and a stupid one to boot. Deciding that whatever happened, she was going to face it head on she looked directly at Lex as he turned to her.

"Hand it over Chloe", Lex told her calmly.

"Hand what over?" She asked looking extremely innocent.

"Save that look for Clark, it's not going to work on me", Lex informed her reaching over and plucking her purse from her grasp.

Reluctantly, Chloe allowed him to have it. It did not seem as though she really had any choice, besides, at least her recording was safe.

Lex didn't say a word to her as went through her purse, before turning back to her. "We will discuss this later", he informed her, holding up her fake idea and slipping it into his pocket.

"Hey, that's mine. That's stealing", Chloe exclaimed. She had paid a bloody fortune for that ID.

"Fine, call the police", he challenged, "then give me your phone".

Chloe rolled her eyes at the police comment, she guessed that that was her ID gone for good then, unless she could get into the mansion undetected …

"The phone Chloe".

"My phone?" This time she opted for a purely blank expression.

"That expression won't work on me either", Lex informed her placidly as they sped along in the limo. He stretched out, appearing to have all of the time in the world. He would get what he wanted, however long it took, besides it was better not to look at her too often. Not because of her beauty, he could deal with that. What made him almost lose his control were the faint marks on her arms that the brute had left. He wanted to hold her and comfort her, but if he showed her how much he cared then he would be lost. Steeling himself, he turned his head towards her again and fixed her with a piercing look that had cowed grown men before.

"It should be in my purse, if it isn't there then I have no idea where it could be", Chloe could only just meet his eyes. She knew that Lex had a temper and was a little worried what he might do next, she had not expected him to burst out laughing.

"God you have been dealing with high school boys for far too long if you think that anyone will fall for that", he said. Chloe looked annoyed, but not like she was in even close to giving in. He would have to change tactic.

Lex appeared to be thinking deeply for a minute before saying, "In fact, maybe you don't want me to fall for that. Maybe you want me to come up with ideas where it might be".

Chloe gapped at him. He couldn't really think that she wanted that could he? Sensing his advantage, he pressed it. Lex slid over to her and placed his hand on her leg. In terms of business it was the right move to make, you didn't show compassion, and she needed to learn her lesson.

In response, she backed up shaking her head.

Lex breathed a sigh of relief; she had retreated, she had learnt her lesson so there was no need for him to take this any further. The slightly panicked look on her face did not sit well with him and he looked the other way, hoping that the blackness of the windows would give him a moment to think. He should back off, if he had scared her then that was enough, that would keep her safe in future and she would give him the phone. She was smirking. He could see her damned reflection in the window and she was bloody smirking. Even now she thought that she could out manoeuvre him. Emotions raged within him; he was so thankful that she was not truly frightened of him and that he got to see the rebellious spirit which he so admired, but he knew that he could not let her win this time.

He advanced on her, he dragged her away from the door so that the only way that she could avoid him was to lean back. In a second he was on top of her, the weight from his body rendering her legs almost useless and both of her wrists were pinned above her head in one of his hands.

Lex was sitting up, looking down at her. He wanted the reality of her situation to fully sink in. She was completely at his mercy, and he was going to get what he wanted from her.

"If you have any desire to procreate then I suggest that you get off me", Chloe threatened him, manoeuvring herself slightly so that her knee was very close to his crotch, it was a trick that Lois had taught her although truth be told, she had always scoffed at the idea that she could ever land herself in such a ludicrous situation.

"Don't make threats that you have no intention of carrying out", Lex warned her as he learnt down close to her. She could feel his hot breath on his face and neck. But more to the point she could feel the hand which wasn't restraining her grazing her thigh. The bastard, he was so confident that she wouldn't hurt him.

She tried to move her leg more, she wouldn't knee him unless she absolutely had too but another few inches and he would no doubt see sense, that was when she realised that she was held far faster than she had first though. Lex was straddling her too far up her legs for her to actually make good on her threat. She tested his hold on her wrists, it did not hurt, but she found it to be far more effective than she had first thought.

The realisation that she was indeed completely trapped must have shown on her face, judging by the look of triumph on Lex's, as his hand continued its course until it came across the bulge in her skirt and pulled out the container.

Lex could have cried with relief; he had what he wanted – he assumed that the box contained the phone - and Chloe appeared to have learned her lesson.

"I have no intention of hurting you Chloe, that does not however mean that others don't. But that's something that we will discuss later, the first thing is to make sure that that recording is deleted", he let her go and retreated to his side of the car. It would be far easier to think clearly if he could not smell her scent but unfortunately he found that it lingered. It was a soft, fresh, soapy smell which he found rather appealing but which didn't help much when he was trying to make a point.

Opening the container he scowled, "I know that this is not what I think it is".

"Well, I suppose that that depends on what you think it is". Chloe said as she righted herself and pulled her skirt further down. She intended to brush off what had just happened and being cheeky was the best way she knew of to do that, but the look on Lex's face told her that she had gone too far this time.

With an exaggerated sigh she explained, "It is a powder developed by the army that makes anyone who snorts it easier to handle and then pass out within five minutes, my uncle gave Lois and I a supply before we started high school so that if anyone ever forced us into using drugs we could give them some of that and run away".

It must have been Chloe's imagination but she thought that she saw Lex relax a little as she said this. "What did you think it was?" She asked.

"I was dearly hoping that it was talc, but you never know. You wouldn't be the first to get in over their head whilst working on a story", Lex handed it back to her.

"So you knew that I was working on a story?"

He looked over at her incredulously. "No, I thought that you had suddenly started travelling three hours to Metropolis just to consort with criminals and low lives - who would gang bang you given half a chance - for fun.

Chloe was oddly touched that he knew her well enough to know that she wasn't just some stupid flighty girl.

"Now stop messing about, give me the phone. I am not having you getting involved in something else that could get you killed because you have the only copy of the recording – although I cannot say that I know exactly what you found so fascinating about our conversation", Lex held out his hand expectantly.

"Lex, I …"

"The phone Chloe. There is only one possible place that it can be and I will take it from you if you don't hand it over in the next five seconds", he informed her.

"You wouldn't".

Lex just raised an eyebrow at her. They both knew that he would.

"One".

Chloe shifted uncomfortably, she didn't want to give up her information to him. She had only meant to give him a copy of it, not the original.

"Two."

He would probably just delete it, and that was her coup de grâce.

"Three".

She could still make her article work and there was enough there for the police, but it would be nice to have it. She had the feeling that it contained more than met the eye – or ear as the case might be.

"Four".

Maybe she and Lex could some to some sort of arrangement. Maybe …

She looked at him, he wasn't going to back down. He wasn't going to compromise. And he was about to say five.

"Fi-".

Chloe handed over the phone.

"Please don't delete it Lex, you have no idea how important this is", she begged.

"You're right, I don't. But I wasn't going to just delete it, I am going to send it to me and my lawyers, then delete it off your phone so that you will not be a target. Then you are going to explain to me what the hell is going on, why you are out here by yourself, why you didn't call me for help and how you got a fake ID and you had better have good excuses", he handed her phone back to her with a dark look.

The screen showed that she had got several missed messages from Lois.

"My cousin is worried, I had better call her I was meant to be back 10 minutes ago", Chloe hedged.

"Fine, call her and tell her that you met me and that I am taking you back to Smallville. You had better do it now, we are coming up to LuthorCorp we can talk on the helicopter and when we get back to the mansion", Lex took his keys, phone and wallet out of his jacket pocket and put them into the one in his trousers.

Chloe had opened her mouth to take issue with this high handed treatment when he did something so sweet that she couldn't object, he took off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, "I will be chilly outside. I will give you some privacy to call your cousin".

She couldn't help it, in spite of everything she melted a little. This was one of the first times that Lex, or any other boy her age, had ever treated her like they would a girl rather than one of the guys.

Lex opened the door, paused and turned back to her, "Chloe I am so angry with you right now that I could strangle you, but I promise that whatever it is we will deal with it", then he pressed a gentle kiss to her temple and left.

For several moments she sat there in shock. There was nothing special about the kiss, it was the kind that a friend, a brother, a cousin, an uncle would give you … so why did it make her feel warm and tingly right to her very core?

Chloe picked up her life line, "Lo, you will never guess what just happened to me!"


	4. Chapter 4

**Part Four**

Chloe had barely joined Lex in the helicopter when he realised that he wasn't going to get any information out of her that night. She was shaking slightly as she perched on her seat next to him, with his jacket held tightly around her. She was clearly cold and tired.

"Did everything go alright with your cousin?" He asked, ferretting around under the seat.

"Y-yes", Chloe said with a nod and a tight smile. Lois had been worried when she couldn't find Chloe in the apartment but once Chloe had explained that she had just gone out and not heard her cell phone Lois had only been mad that she hadn't waited for her – "we could have had a fun girls' night out" – the fact that her cousin was underage seemed not to bother her in the slightest. Nor had she asked how Chloe had got into the club to start with, although Chloe was expecting to receive a text asking about that some time tomorrow when Lois had put two and two together – late at night was not Lois' best time … nor was early morning. Chloe expected that she would be bombarded with questions around lunchtime.

As for her cousin heading home early, Lois would miss her but was glad that she wouldn't have to go back on the bus – it was cheaper than taking her car – for three hours the next day and just asked if her rich helicopter owning friend was cute. That was when Chloe had announced that she had to go, but had promised to give Lois all of the details later. If she didn't she knew that her cousin would hunt her down and beat it out of her, it was a shame that Lois had no journalistic aspirations as she would have been a natural.

Chloe was glad that she had got that phone call out of the way, she hated making her family worry, especially Lois – she had done enough of that last summer. Chloe had then made her way to the helicopter as quickly as possible as it was freezing on the LuthorCorp roof. Now that she was safely inside she was sure that she would warm up soon, especially once the engine started up but for the moment she was freezing and was going to have to give up the scant warmth provided to her by Lex's jacket.

She felt uncomfortable enough around him at that moment without keeping his jacket. It had been very sweet of him to offer it to her, she shouldn't take advantage of it, besides he probably needed it, although he didn't appear to be shaking … just looking for something under the seat.

Steeling herself, as Lex turned back to her, she slipped off his jacket and held it out to him staring at him as he looked oddly at her.

Lex raised an eyebrow at her and tried to keep his eyes on her face rather than on the evidence of the chill in the air, clearly visible through her top. Why was she giving him back his jacket when she obviously needed it?

He placed the flask that he had found down for a moment before taking the jacket off her and rewrapping it around her shoulders saying, "You keep it, you're cold".

"Thank-you, but you must be cold too", she said as if it were obvious. This earned her another hard stare from Lex as he tried to work out if she was seriously suggesting that she would sit there getting a chill just because he might be cold. Normally people had no problems taking things from him without worrying about things like how he felt about it. He realised that she was in earnest as she began to shrug off the jacket again.

"No, I'm not cold", he told her, placing his hand on her shoulder to still her movements. He noticed how small her shoulder felt under his hand. Seeing that she still looked like she might refuse he said, "Really, I insist, I will be fine".

"Um … okay. If you are really sure", Chloe submitted looking at him. How could he possibly not be cold? It was true that he was better covered than her but he was not made of stone. She dearly wished that she had thought to bring a coat, that way she would not be sitting there looking like an idiot who couldn't even think of the most simple things – although Lex did not appear to have brought a coat either but then again she had never seen him wear a hat however cold it got and being bald he must lose loads of heat from his head.

As she thought this, Lex was unscrewing his flask and pouring a hot beverage which looked and smelled deliciously like hot chocolate. She could feel her stomach gnawing; she had been too busy to eat that day and too tired the night before. She had always been an erratic eater, too concerned with what she was doing to think about food until the need to eat became overwhelming and then she would bolt far too much of whatever was closest to hand – often junk food -, but she knew that she had got much worse about it the last few months. With everything that had been going on with her and her father proper nourishment was the last thing on her mind.

"I'm always sure, Chloe", Lex said sounding annoyingly arrogant but destroyed the effect by smiling as he saw how intently her gaze was fixed on the hot chocolate, it was a good job that he had thought to order it for her. He knew that however brave she was, she had been through a lot that night and would need some sugar … plus he knew how she felt about chocolate.

"Here", he handed her the mug, not giving her the option to refuse.

"Thank-you, it smells divine", Chloe beamed as she clasped her fingers around the mug and blew gently on the steaming liquid before sipping it. Luckily her years of coffee drinking meant that she could consume liquids that would have scalded the mouths of lesser mortals. As the thick, rich liquid slid down her throat Chloe closed her eyes in contentment, a look of pure ecstasy on her face and a soft half sigh half moan escaped her lips.

She had to find out what this stuff was exactly, it wasn't like any hot chocolate she had ever tried before. It tasted like – and had the consistency of – pure melted chocolate of the most delicious variety she had ever experienced with a hit of something else, she suspected alcohol. In the past she had frequently wondered why Lex put up with his father and didn't just pack it all in - being a millionaire would be just as satisfying as being a billionaire she imagined – although when she had asked him he had said that it was because he wanted his father's love she suspected that it might have something to do with being able to afford such yummy drinks. She was sure that this one was very expensive. Maybe if she sold her car she could buy a couple of cups of the stuff.

When her eyes fluttered back open she noticed that Lex was staring at her, an amused expression on his face, one eyebrow raised.

Chloe blushed, she tended to get a little over enthusiastic about food in general but especially chocolate. She shrugged a shoulder, "I like chocolate".

"So I see", Lex took her now empty mug from her and refilled it noticing as he did so that the tops of her nails were a faint purple colour. He frowned, he knew that she had been cold but she should not have been that cold, nor should that have happened. He wondered if she had poor circulation, maybe she wasn't getting enough protein, first thing tomorrow he would have to get her medical records and check.

Misinterpreting his frown as one directed at her greed, she shook her head at the second cup only to have it pressed into her palm.

"Drink, you look like you could use it", Lex kept his eyes fixed on her face, waiting for another semi orgasmic reaction to the beverage all the while telling himself that the only reason why he had ordered her chocolate and was plying her with it was because he wouldn't get any information out of her until she was comfortable.

She should have been grateful, she was grateful but she could not help snapping at him, "Do you have to stare at me like that?"

Lex smirked, "What can I say, I find your response to chocolate fascinating".

Chloe scowled at him. She knew that she was not considered particularly attractive and that part of that was due to her choices – something that Lois had made painfully clear when threatening several of her tops with scissors recently – but there was no need for her to rub it in. She knew that she could stand to lose a couple of pounds. She wondered what Lana weighed exactly, something like this would never happen to her, but then again she probably wouldn't have drunk the entire mug so quickly, or with such relish, either.

"Sorry, I suppose that I should be more ladylike and simper 'Oh Lex, I simply couldn't. It will go straight to my thighs'", she did her best valley girl accent.

Lex chuckled, and shook his head. "It seems that your knowledge of what men like and what is truly ladylike is as limited as your knowledge of what looks will work on anyone who isn't a teenaged farm boy". He was rather pleased with himself for not having made any comment about joining the chocolate at her thighs, that would have been inappropriate, which was a shame as it would certainly have passed the flight very pleasantly and probably warmed her up too.

Before Chloe got the chance to respond to this statement, the captain announced, "We are ready for take-off Mr Luthor".

"Okay, one minute", Lex replied. "Cheers", he raised his drink to Chloe and drained it – they had to get rid of the liquid before took off. It was very good, he noticed that they had taken his instructions to only get the best to heart although he was not too pleased that they had put a couple of shots in there but he supposed that they couldn't have known that the 'young lady' accompanying him was really young and actually a lady in the classical sense of the word. It didn't both him, a couple of shots would have no effect on him but he could already see Chloe's eyelids getting heavier as she savoured the last of her chocolate.

Lex put the cups away and gave the order to the pilot, enjoying the slightly odd expression on Chloe's face as they took off. He had long ago got used to the odd feeling in the tummy that came with flying but it was sweet to see that Chloe did not try to hide her reaction. The other girls who had been on his chopper had all tried to seem experienced even when they weren't.

He sat back in his seat and was pleased to see that Chloe did so as well, clearly more relaxed now although as she fell asleep less than two minutes later that could just have been exhaustion. Her head lolled to the side in a way that Lex thought must have been rather uncomfortable so he slipped a little closer and gently put his arm around her shoulders, supporting her neck. She instinctively sought out his warmth, nuzzling into him, and resting her head on his chest.

A lock of hair fell across her face and Lex brushed it away. It was so rare that he just got to look at her, he wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. Of course he had the security footage, but it wasn't the same. And the few times that he had been in her company they had both been trying to ignore each other so he had not had the chance to really get close to her and expect her.

Chloe was gorgeous, he had always known that. When she was awake Chloe was so full of life, wit, intelligence and, well, snarkiness. But as she slept, she looked like an angel although he was sad to say that he could not say that she looked entirely at peace.

He had suspected as much earlier, but now that he looked closer there was no denying that she had lost weight and not in the healthy way. He supressed a growl, he knew that she had been working too hard, he knew that it had not been because she had going to the gym as she had given up her membership in September … or rather it had ended with her death and she had never renewed it. Come to think of it, other than running around for The Torch and after Clark, Lex was not sure if she actually got to exercise properly. That was another thing, she spent too much time on Clark's problems, the evidence of which was under her eyes. Even through the make-up he could make out the dark circles. She had always been busy, but he could not remember her ever looking really tired before last summer.

Resisting the urge to wipe the make-up off her face, Lex tried to stop himself thinking of that last torturous summer he had enough to deal with in its aftermath without reliving it.

He could do nothing about it until he got her home, but then he would get a better security detail for her – after finding out what the hell had gone wrong that night -, and get the information from her the next morning … along with her medical records. He was most put out, her doctor was supposed to be keeping him updated of any problems with her but he had not received any indication that she had even been to the clinic even though she clearly wasn't well. It would be just like Chloe to suffer through it without telling anyone, well he would put a stop to that.

Could he put a stop to that? A little voice asked him. He had to admit that he was not widely liked in Smallville and even Clark seemed to trust him a little less. Well he could hardly blame him, although it wasn't as if wonder boy had ever been completely honest with Lex either. Still, if he had to he would go through Clark to make sure that Chloe was being looked after as she should be. Not that Chloe was going to like that, he thought, still it had to be done.

He knew that he should stay away from Chloe Sullivan; she brought out the worst in him. He had been bred not to show emotions or mercy and had thought that he had mastered this ability. Yet twice now she had made him not only doubt whether beating his father was worth the price, but also reveal that he cared about her. The time when he had been willing not to use her against Lionel he had dismissed as he had just been through an ordeal, but there was no excuse for what had happened earlier that evening when he had got out of the limo. He had shown quite clearly that he cared, he had been ready to leave with the words on the tip of his tongue but being angrily bitten back as usual when then he had thought of her all alone and doubting him … he had had no choice. He had shown weakness.

It was a mistake, it had to be; it was everything that his father had always taught him not to do, but he hated his father now. What would his mother have wanted him to do? Probably to tell the truth and shame the devil, that was what she had always said. Well he had certainly done that.

What was the other thing that his mother had forever been telling him?

"To receive trust you must give and earn it".

Lex swallowed, that would be very difficult. He was not even sure that he could do something like that with Clark, and possibly that was why his only friend had never trusted him in turn. But what about Chloe? He had just taken it for granted that he could not have her in his life, she would be in too much danger and he could not hurt her. Besides, after the way that he had treated her recently he doubted that she would even want to be his friend.

However hard it had been to say those words, it would be worth it if one day she could learn to trust him again. He knew that she would never feel about him the way that he did about her but that was okay, he would settle for just having her in his life – once he could do so safely.

He breathed deeply, it would be difficult but he would find a way if it meant that he could have Chloe. Had he not put business on the back burner tonight to ensure her comfort? If that wasn't something special from Lex Luthor then … well, nothing. It was an amazing feat for him and that was that. He would do anything if it meant having Chloe.

Lex couldn't understand how Clark could have had a crush on Lana for all of these years when Chloe was around. It was true that her hairstyles hadn't always done her justice and that her wardrobe at some points had been downright terrible. She certainly didn't have Lana's coyness either, but from the first moments that he had seen her he had been attracted to her. The intelligence and curiosity which lit up her eyes could not be ignored. Or rather it could, but only by Clark. Lex briefly wondered if maybe Clark might need glasses.

Chloe always looked fantastic. Even when they had been in the tunnels as her new home exploded over their heads she had kept herself together, holding her father's hand and putting on a brave face. There was only one time that Lex could remember seeing her look broken and that was in the safe house he had created for her.

Her father had been taken to a separate location just to ensure that there could be no errors and she had been alone accept for the guards. Everyone she loved – except her father – believed that she was dead and she was afraid for her life. She had busied herself around the house and done a lot of research and school work – Lex was fairly certain that she had already done enough school work to graduate before she actually returned to school.

All day she would work at her laptop, not being able to go outside even for a few minutes, declining to eat anything or tear herself away from her laptop; acting as if she believed the world would fall apart if she stopped working. Well, that was exactly what had happened when she had stopped, to her world at least. Every night she would go to bed later than Lex thought prudent and try to sleep hoping that exhaustion would overtake her only to toss and turn for an hour before bursting into tears. She would sob for about an hour for the first month but less the second, and only a tear or two in the third. The one thing that would never change was that she would the slip into the kitchen and bring back around 2,000 calories of junk food and binge.

Lex knew that he shouldn't have been watching her. Of course it was necessary to have a camera in every room including her bedroom for her protection and it was even more necessary that he should be the only one to have the feed for the same reason, but he could have forward winded as he knew nothing had happened to her but he couldn't help it. She was his responsibility and she was hurt. He longed to go there, to hold her and stroke her hair and tell her that it would all be alright, but someone might follow him and then she would be in danger, he couldn't' do that to her. At his lowest moment as he watched her almost choke on a biscuit she gnawed on as she was so desperate after not having eaten in 24 hours he considered killing his father. Then he could go to Chloe, the only thing that had stopped him was the thought of the look on her face if she ever found out what he had done.

Instead he had ensured that the guards put a large tray of nicer foods in her room for her every night along with the best movies he could find – that seemed to help a little. It was interesting to be able to watch a TV and see her reaction to everything that was happening on the screen, sometimes he felt like he was right there with her. Lex had watched more TV that summer than he had in the rest of his life, every night when he got back from business he would check the feed and sit down and watch the TV with Chloe. He found out that she liked Buffy with made sense as she was a fighter too and judging by her expression she had genuinely believed that Faith could be saved.

They hit some turbulence and Lex was pulled out of his reverie but was happy to see that Chloe was still asleep and snuggled up next to him. He had never been a good flier, it was something that he had learned to do but which would never feel entirely natural to him. He could remember all too clearly the scene between his father and him on the day of the meteor attack. He wondered what would have happened if Chloe had been in that situation, he would bet several million that even as a child Chloe had been assertive and would probably have loved flying, but if she had not would have told Lionel so in no uncertain terms and demanded that he land the helicopter immediately.

"We are about to land, Mr Luthor", it was the pilot's voice which disturbed his thoughts this time. That had to be the shortest half an hour that he had ever passed and he was rather sad to be home as it meant that he was now going to have to wake Chloe up and loose her closeness. Unless … she really did look tired, it would be a shame to wake her just to put her to bed – he was determined that he would not pump her for information until she was properly rested. Really the only gentlemanly thing to do would be to help her out.

Once they were on the ground and the pilot had opened the door, Lex moved the arm which had been draped around Chloe's shoulders more security around her back keeping her head against his chest. Then he looped his free arm under his knees and stood up. The warm weight of her in his arms should have tired him rather than renewing his energy. He felt like a knight of old with the fair maiden in his arms, rescuing her from the belly of the beast … or the helicopter as it was. Not that Chloe couldn't have dealt with a dragon if awake and necessary, he smirk at the image of her giving the dragon a withering look, making him sit and telling him that he had been very naughty – as he had once seen her do to one of his guard dogs when it had snapped at her.

Chloe murmured something in her sleep and wrapped her arm around his neck and shifted a little as he carried her across the lawn as quickly as possible, hoping that the cold would not wake her. He would hate to be deprived of his precious burden now, he had already refused every offer from the guards to take her off him.

When he reached the best guest bedroom he was glad to see that everything was in order and placed her on the bed and slipped her boots off before covering her in several heavy blankets. He should leave then, he knew it. She looked comfortable, if her hugging part of the blanket was anything to go by, but he couldn't resist bending over her once more to press a tender kiss to her brow.

It was a mistake, as he breathed in her clean soapy smell and heard her "ni nigh", clearly having no idea what was going on, he knew that he couldn't be without her. Whatever it took, she would be protected and if that meant his father's death then so be it.

With that he left her room to let her sleep, everything else would have to wait until morning.


	5. Chapter 5

**Part Five**

"Mmm", Chloe murmured as she stirred. She felt so wonderfully relaxed, she had slept very well but she was not quite ready to open her eyes yet. Considering how soundly she had clearly been asleep it was a bit of a shock to realise that she was starting to bestir herself at all. She wondered what could have caused it.

As if in answer she felt a warm hand slide across her stomach and a soft pair of her lips placing kisses on her neck.

Another moan. She could get used to waking up like this. Her brain was trying to tell her something but she thought that she could ignore it for a while yet. She had the feeling that once her mind turned on properly her day was going to be very stressful, she would just lie here a little longer.

Noticing that she was obviously waking up the hand and lips became more adventurous the latter trailing kisses up her neck and across her cheek before caressing her own. Okay, so this was clearly a dream but she thought that she would enjoy it anyway, "Clark", she whispered, her eyes still closed.

Her lower lip was captured and held gently, almost in warning before being released. She felt Clark retreating, muttered his name once more reaching out her hands to bring him back to her, but instead of curls she felt nothing but smooth skin.

"No", there was a low growl as both of her hands were moved above her head. Chloe's eyes flashed open to find herself being pinned down by none other than Lex Luthor.

"Lex", she gasped, her eyes wide with shock.

"Oh so that is how you want to play it, is it?" He smirked down at her, as he somehow produced the one of his silk ties and bound her wrists to the head board.

To her surprise, Chloe noticed that her body would not fight against him, in fact as he drew back and ran his hands along her arms she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning.

Lex noticed this and his smirk grew. He leant back down as if to kiss her but stopped mere inches away, she craned her neck up but he was still just out of her reach. He placed a kiss tantalizing close to her mouth before moving to whisper in her ear: "You and I both know that you forgot about Kent months ago".

She gasped and he nibbled on her earlobe, "But as I think that you know by now, I am happy to play any little games you like", he caressed her below the blanket, "so, if you want to be the good shocked girl in evil Luthor's bedroom, still pining for her high school love then I am more than happy to oblige". As if to make his point, he squeezed her breast gently.

Chloe's head felt back as she arched. Lex's teeth ran along her throat and then, in the same voice like dark chocolate, "After all, it is the least I can do after that naughty school girl fantasy".

Then he sat back up and she groaned at the loss of contact. She looked up at him, taking in all that she could see of him. He really was a very fine specimen of a man, she noted. His stomach was hard and flat, his chest and shoulders were broad, and his arms looked strong. He looked powerful but warm and like his skin would be very soft to touch, she tried to confirm this – for the sake of journalism, of course - but found herself hampered by his tie. Then her eyes travelled up to his face. His expression was dark and he when he spoke his voice held a sneer.

"Really Miss Sullivan I would have thought that you would have realised by now that you are never going to be with Clark Kent".

She looked up at him with large wounded eyes, how could he be so nice one minute and mean the next?

"You are mine", he growled and Chloe felt a strange tugging sensation in her stomach.

"And as you seem to be having problems remembering that and in whose bed you are lying, I suppose that I will just have to remind you". His grin was wicked and he turned his attention once more to her throat.

He thought that she was playing a game with him. That was how he could change so quickly. Unfortunately Chloe was not quite sure how she had managed to enter this game, a frequent occurrence with the Luthors, and this time she was bound with no way to win.

Lex did not seem to want to hurt her, on the contrary he seemed to believe that she wanted to be there and was intent on pleasing her and as much as Chloe hated to admit it, he was doing a good job.

As his lips found her breast, she found herself not caring about winning or getting free, by the time that his head had travelled passed her stomach she couldn't have cared less if the entire world had ended provided that he didn't stop.

So much for being in control.

Chloe bolted up right, breathing hard, a thin sheen of perspiration clinging to her body. Her eyes were unaccustomed to so much light, having been so deeply asleep, and for a minute she blinked only seeing dots swirling in front of her eyes.

"What the hell was that?" Chloe wondered. She had had dreams about Lex before but they had never been quite that vivid and she normally didn't wake up before the really good bits.

As she finally got her sight back, she began to look around the room. Even before she had been able to see she had known that this was not her room. Her room was never this bright in the morning, the windows were only single glazed and they had to be careful with the central heating costs so they had used the thickest curtains they had on all of the windows. Furthermore, her bed was not so large nor half as comfortable. Well, that was not quite true, the one which she had had to leave in the large house they had had last year had been, but the one in the apartment certainly wasn't. What was more, she couldn't hear her Dad through the thin walls as he padded around the living room which he used as a bedroom. It was the creaking of the sofa bed under her father's bulk that always woke her up – except when she was at Lois' … then it was her cousin trying to spoon her in her sleep.

This room could only be in the Luthor mansion, even threw the white curtains she could make out the stained glass windows which coloured the light which filled the room. A room which was large and opulent, Chloe would not only have killed for the bed that she was lying in but also the large mahogany desk which sat across from it. Somehow she thought that anything written on that desk would be good. She had stayed here once before, in this very room, and had had the same feelings about the desk then too. There could be no doubt as to her location, the question was why she was there.

She racked her brains, something must have happened the night before. She never was good for anything before her morning coffee. She remembered that she was following a lead in Metropolis and had gone to a club, she had wanted to find out who the owner was …

"Damn it". It all came to her, not in a flood but drop by drop. It had been Lex, he had held her close to him, he had taken her away from the club, he had been an arrogant ass and sweeter than she would ever have thought possible. She remembered being in the helicopter but could not remember the journey nor how she had got into the mansion, let alone into bed and removed her boots. She vaguely had a recollection of hovering off in the air and being cuddled by a massive teddy bear but she assumed that that had been a dream.

"Maybe it was all a dream", Chloe muttered to herself as she ran a hand through her hair. But then how had she got there? She couldn't remember anything after the hot chocolate, maybe it had been drugged. But why would Lex do something like that? He didn't care about her and she didn't have anything that could be of use to him … except for the recording.

Chloe looked around frantically for her bag and found it on the floor next to the bed. She rummaged for her phone and almost screamed when she saw that the evidence she had found had been deleted, it must have been deleted because all of the missed calls from Lois were logged there so it was not as if she could have imagined the entire episode.

"I'm going to kill him", she growled. He had made her loose her lead. In Chloe's anger over this she forgot her intention to tell him what was going on and bring the circle to justice. Clearly Lex was not to be trusted; she would have to do this by herself. She had to go and research.

She tried to leap from the bed but that just ended with her on the floor, apparently her feet were very cosy in bed and reluctant to leave it. She hauled herself up and winced as she caught a glimpse of herself in the ornate full length mirror right by the bed. Her hair was a mess, her make-up was smudged, her clothes were rumpled and she appeared to still be wearing Lex's jacket.

Figuring that there was no harm in washing her face before she left, Chloe headed into the en suite where she found soap and a hair brush and set about making herself a little more presentable. It wouldn't do for her Dad to see her like this and she would have to go home before school to get changed, but that would mean that she would have to explain what she was doing home so much earlier than she said that she would be and why she was dressed like she was. Her father was very lenient but she was fairly certain that she would be grounded until she was his age if he ever found out that she had been to a club and more to the point, she did not want to upset or worry him. He had enough on his plate.

When she got back to their tiny apartment with its walls which continued to look grubby however many times she scrubbed them and stained carpet, there would be a new pile of letters which her father would open one by one each time hoping that they offered him a job and becoming steadily more disheartened when all he received were rejection letters and bills. When he saw her he would smile and try to make the best of it, but he could not fool her. He felt like a failure because he could not provide her with all of the things that he wanted for her. They had never been rich, her mother had seen to that in the divorce settlement, but he had always been able to provide her with a roof over her head and a college fund … now both were practically gone.

Chloe sighed and berated herself for being a coward as she opted not to go home but straight to school. No one else would be there at this time and she could grab a shower in the gym, she had a spare change of clothes in her locker there due to her almost meteor-freak like ability to spill coffee down herself, especially when it was a new top.

Heading back into the bedroom, figuring that there was only so much she could do with her appearance at the moment, she made the bed again and placed Lex's jacket neatly on it. And then proceeded to undo her neat job of tucking in the corners by sitting on it to put on her boots. Without the coat she realised that she really missed the smell, being wrapped up in it as she had been was probably the real reason for her dream, nothing to do with her feelings for Lex. Nothing to do with the way he looked at her or …

"No", she hissed. She didn't have time to dwell on that now; she had a story to uncover.

As Chloe grabbed her bag and left she wondered whether she should leave a note, or would that look too presumptuous? Would Lex care? She decided that he probably wouldn't and had probably been annoyed, she could only assume that she had invited herself to stay.

In the hallway she could not but help look around her, her natural curiosity could be all consuming at times. She could remember her way back from last time when she had had a full tour of the house, but then there had always been a guard at her side for her protection then, this was the first time that she had had completely unfettered access. It was cool! It was something that any report dreamed of but she couldn't indulge herself right then, she had a job to do.

Just then she heard footsteps coming towards her from behind and froze, although she knew that she had not broken in she still felt as if she didn't belong there and that anyone who found her there would know as much. She hoped that it wasn't Lex; she wasn't sure how she would face him as she was then.

"Miss Sullivan?"

Phew! It wasn't Lex.

Chloe turned around and fixed the confused looking maid with her most winning smile.

"You are awake", the maid continued now looking a little worried. "I am so sorry that I was not there to wait on you, I did not think that you would be up until at least 7, I was just bringing your clothes now".

Chloe looked down at the black bag in her arms.

Seeing her perplexed look the maid continued, "Mr Luthor said that we were to get some clothes in your size as you hadn't any luggage".

"Um, that is very kind but I don't need any clothes". The considering her appearance at that moment she added, "Okay, clearly I do but will get them at school, I won't accept clothes from Lex".

The maid paled, she had offended the girl and the master of the house would be angry when he found out about the clothes. She should apologise, but if she did that then she would just draw attention to what she had done. "Is there anything that I can do for you Miss?"

"Please call me Chloe and no, not unless you have a bus timetable", she smiled, not wanting the woman to feel hurt because she had not accepted the garments.

"A bus timetable? Did you not bring your car?"

"No, I didn't".

"Then I will call the chauffeur to take you wherever you want to go".

"That won't be necessary", Chloe explained.

"Yes, it will. Mr Luthor wouldn't like it …" That obviously wasn't going to get her anywhere. She thought of what she had been told about Miss Sullivan, and tried, "If you went in the chauffer driven car it would take him 5 minutes to be ready, in which time I could make you some coffee".

Lex woke up in his own room at his normal 5am to see the warm sunlight filling the room. In some ways he was sad to awake considering the dreams that he had been having but for once morning meant that he would be going to see Chloe which compensated for losing his dreams of her, although he wasn't sure how he was going to survive until he next got to see her knowing how close she was to him. He thought that she would need her sleep, she had looked exceedingly tired the night before, waking her up directly was out of the question. He would wait until 8 o'clock, she couldn't be planning on going to school as she wasn't even meant to be back in Smallville by that time. Yes, 8 would be the right time to send in the maid with her breakfast but that was three hours away, maybe she would have got enough sleep by 7:30.

He got out of bed, showered and dressed in what he considered to be a casual manner – charcoal slacks and his baby blue jumper which always drew the ladies' attention. He was in rather a good mood when he entered his study as normal at 20 past 5 and sent a text to one of his assistants to the effect that he would be working from home that day.

Luckily he didn't actually have any LuthorCorp work to do that day, he had accomplished everything that he had needed to when he had been in Metropolis and he could delegate some of the day to day stuff to others, that was what they were there for after all. His only concern was getting to the bottom of Lionel's twisted games, and thanks to Chloe he knew where to look. Once he had sorted out a few Chloe related problems first.

Calling Chloe's security detail and threatening to make them disappear if anything like that happened again as well as demanding a full investigation did ruin his mood a little but nowhere near as much as the call to her doctor did. He had hesitated for a minute before calling him at this time of the morning, but only for a minute, after all he paid the man enough to keep him informed and to convince Chloe and her father that it was normal LuthorCorp policy that all former employees and their families got 2 years free health cover. It was good that he had called; the man had not done his job. Neither Chloe nor her father had been in to see him, not even for their six month check-up never mind that it was the first thing that they should have done when they got out of hiding.

"Why didn't you call them and tell them that they needed to get checked out?" Lex bellowed down the phone.

"I did, but they said that it wasn't necessary".

"You should have made them understand that it was necessary", Lex roared. "I will not put up with incompetence. Your job is to make sure that they are both healthy, how the hell can you do that if you don't know what could possibly be wrong with them?"

"With all due respect, if they don't want to come in then they don't have to. I cannot drag them in here and force them to get a check-up", the doctor protested, a tremor in his voice.

Lex was about to ask why not when he realised that they man was not a Luthor. He took a breath and, trying to remain calm, inquired, "Could you not have made them understand that LuthorCorp requires regular health checks in order to keep paying their bills or something?"

"Maybe they don't want anything from LuthorCorp", the man muttered under his breath but Lex heard it.

He ground his teeth and asked, "What do you know about Chloe's health?" The rest of the conversation was not much more heartening, whilst Chloe had always been a healthy girl the doctor thought that it sounded like she wasn't taking care of herself and had been concerned about her father's heart for years, if he was eschewing doctors he would not meet a happy end.

Lex felt drained when he hung the phone back up, he had always known that Gabe was a bit tubby, overworked and underappreciated – by everyone except his daughter – but it had never really occurred to him that this might cause heart difficulties. Well, soon all of his worries would be taken care of, Lex had only a few matters to attend to this morning, this afternoon he would make sure that Gabe was alright.

Before going to sleep the night before Lex had told his people to dig up everything they could find on the club so he could now peruse them. It wasn't good; there was far more to this than first met the eye. Lex listened to the audio track again and swore as he began to get the bigger picture, it was time to make the call.

By the time that that call was over it was 7 am. That was almost 7:30, maybe it was breakfast time for his guest.

Just as he was thinking this, there came a knock at his study door. His heart leapt a little thinking that maybe it was Chloe and Lex had to try to hide his disappointment as the door swung open to reveal the maid he had told to take care of Chloe.

He gave her a tight smile and said, "Please have breakfast for Miss Sullivan prepared immediately and taken to her room".

"That is what I was coming to tell you Mr Luthor, I can't. She just left over an hour ago. I thought that you might like to know.

"Damn it", he swore, wondering why the woman had waited an hour to inform him of this. Well there was no way that Chloe was going to get away with just running away from him. He grabbed his keys and stormed out of the door.


	6. Chapter 6

**Part Six**

Lex's Aston Martin screeched out of the garage at break neck speed. In mere seconds he was out on the open road and was glad that there was no one else about so he could go well above the speed limit, if a speed camera caught him then he would pay the fine and have done with it, nothing was going to keep him from getting his hands on Chloe as quickly as humanly possible.

His anger was so absolute that he didn't even feel a flicker of the thrill he normally got from going so fast and flirting with danger. He sped over the bridge where he had first met Clark without so much as a pang of regret, all that mattered was Chloe. At least the maid had managed to convince her to take a Luthor car so he knew that she was heading to school rather than home or the Talon.

Not only had she just left him without a word of goodbye or explanation, she had done so without eating breakfast and had even been planning on using public transportation. Lex shuddered. Not that she would have had much luck, there was none near the mansion, that meant that she would have rather have walked for an hour, if not more, along a road where anyone could have come along and attacked her rather than taking his car or speaking to him.

Lex's hands were clenching the steering wheel so tightly that he would be surprised if he didn't leave any indentations. Was she just plain stupid or was his company and car really so bad that she would rather risk her life? No, whatever else she might be: impulsive, stubborn, irritating Chloe wasn't stupid; she wouldn't have risked her safety unless she thought that she had no other choice, like at the club.

Did that mean that she thought that her life was in danger if she stayed in the mansion? Was she afraid of him? Lex paled at the thought. No, Chloe had also proved the night before, that she wasn't afraid of him. So why had she been willing to risk herself again? Okay, so now that he thought about it, most likely she would have called Clark to come and pick her up once she was outside rather than risking walking all of that way.

That only left one option left to explain her actions; she really hated him that much that she could not bear to stay in his home for a second longer than was necessary. Things did not look good for Lex's steering wheel.

After all that he had done to her, he supposed that he could not really blame her. Maybe all of his dreams the night before of her growing to trust him were just fantasies.

"Congratulations Dad, you finally got what you wanted, my final chance at redemption is gone", he said softly.

Chloe clearly wanted nothing to do with him, he should turn around and head back to the mansion. There he could bury himself under paperwork and maybe one day he would forget about her. No, that was not an option; he had to stop what was happening at the club and protect her. After that was done, if she wanted nothing to do with him then he would obey her wishes but not until then.

Lex reluctantly slowed down as he reached the town centre, he wouldn't risk killing someone just because he was in a rush. Chloe wouldn't like that. It was beyond frustrating when he was now so close to the school but had to stop because people couldn't walk across the street quickly enough. He attacked his horn in an outburst that his father would have said was unbecoming of a Luthor but at that moment he didn't care, he just had to get to Chloe.

Lex could not shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen to her. He did not fear that anyone at the club would hurt her, first of all because they had no way of knowing who she was, nor that she would cause them any problems yet. Second of all, because she still had her security detail, as well as a second one which he had just employed to check on the first one. The evil that Lex feared as less definite than that, it was just a general sense of foreboding, linked probably to the fact that she had looked so fragile in his arms last night.

When he finally did get to the school he parked as close possible before leaping out of the car, barely remembering to push the button to lock it. He could buy another car if need be.

There had been very few cars in the car park and Lex didn't see anyone as he barrelled into the school and began to stalk his way towards the office of the torch. He sneered at the overly cheerful decorations and the multi-coloured lockers, as if this place had not been designed to be a prison. He hoped that Chloe was okay, and if she was then she had better have a bloody good reason for what she had done and making him come all the way down here to get her; they could have had a far more cosy chat in his office.

High schools always set his teeth on edge, he couldn't imagine anyone every being happy in one. As he moved through the corridors he could feel his anger returning as various memories of Chloe in this place flittered through his mind, she had been strong and healthy then. The more differing images of her he got the more confused he became.

Although his original anger had returned, it wasn't just because she had shown him so little respect when he had gone out of his way to be solicitous. Nor was it because she was now effectively denying him information, having left before their conversation. It wasn't even the fact that there seemed to be a vague possibility that at times she might actually be a tiny bit afraid of him – as disturbing as that fact was. He was really worried about her. Before his mother's illness she had looked tired and pale. She had been running herself into the ground for a year before she caught the illness which ultimately took her life. She had been so kind and giving, every charity that applied to them had her full attention and if that meant that she to sacrifice herself then she was more than willing to do so.

At first it hadn't been a problem, it was just a meal here and there, a few hours less sleep but it had soon spiralled out of control. Lex was sure that if his father had put his foot down and made her rest and eat that his mother would never have got sick in the first place. He was not going to lose Chloe. Even if she could never love him, even if she could never learn to trust him she would be alive and healthy. He would also do his damnedest to ensure that she was happy, even if that was with someone else and even if Lana had to disappear to make that happen.

As he finally reached the office of The Torch – the corridors had seemed particularly long that day - he noticed that the door was open and he could quite clearly hear Chloe's voice, she was on the phone and facing the other way, looking out of the window. She had clearly not realised that anyone else was in the school at that moment.

"Thank-you so much Miss Smith, no really, this is the best news that you could have given me. They said that I was shoe in the other day but I wasn't sure, I just got the email and your phone call just confirms it: I can go to College".

He could only hear Chloe's side of the conversation but he felt distinctly uneasy. She had been applying for financial aid? What about her LuthorCorp scholarship? Why did she feel that she needed financial aid as well? He hadn't even known that she had applied, this really was getting ridiculous. His staff were completely incompetent.

"Yes", she started speaking again. "I can confirm that my current address is apartment G, building IQ5, Gainsbury Street".

Lex felt sick. Of course he had known that she was living in IQ5, Gainsbury Street – a fact that had never sat well with him – but not that she was in anything other than the penthouse apartment. He had never been happy with the fact that Chloe and her father had had to move out of their house and into an apartment, although he knew that it was a temporary necessity, but it was in a safe area and he had been around the apartment himself - the penthouse that was – and had ordered that it be completely made over with full security system and good furniture.

On his way out he had passed another apartment available for rent, apartment G, and being nosy, had had a look around before leaving revolted. He could not image anyone who would be willing to live in that. Why had his security told him that she was going to be moving into the penthouse? Wait, had they? No, they had just told him the apartment, he had assumed that that would mean the penthouse. Damn it.

Still, his security team should have worked out which one she was in and informed him of the fact that she had been left to live in misery. No wonder she looked so tired, all of this time she had been cooped up in that tiny hovel, it hadn't even looked clean. There had only been one bedroom if he remembered correctly. Heads would roll when he found out who was responsible … other than his father and him, that was.

He had never truly realised how much devastation his war with his father had caused before, he thought that he had taken care of everything with regards to Chloe … what had gone wrong?

Lex was about to cough and make his presence known as Chloe hung up but the phone rang again immediately. He could see her checking the number and he swore that he heard her sigh before putting the phone to her ear and asking, "Have you got that damned leak fixed yet?"

His fists clenched. There was a leak to boot? And one that had clearly been going on for a while if Chloe's tone was anything to go by. That could cause mould. Chloe could be breathing in mould every night as she slept. As soon as he had spoken to Chloe, he would go straight to her father. Chloe Sullivan would not wake once more in that apartment, and he owner would wake up somewhere very unpleasant indeed.

As he thought this, he must have made some noise as Chloe told the man on the other end of her phone that she would have to call him back and turned around saying, "Clark, you're early". Her gaze turned frosty as it fell on Lex, "What are you doing here?"

Hearing those words hurt Lex more than he would have admitted. For a moment he lost his momentum. He had been furious when he left the mansion, all of the way here, now that he finally had the chance to confront her he was just hurt and worried. He was pathetic!

He was fairly certain that he knew what was going on at the club – more or less –, he could afford to wait until that evening to get the rest of the information from Chloe as nothing could be done until after 9pm anyway. There was nothing stopping him from taking her to task about her health now.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked.

Chloe looked at him quizzically. She was still breathing a little too deeply, she was so annoyed/upset about that damned phone call and she was spoiling for a fight. Was Lex really going to come barging into her office and ask her for sensitive information about the club after he had deleted her recording? It was his fault that she had had to come in so early to research and get all of her information together so that she could write her article. Only once it was ready to go to print would she show it to him, she had decided. Chloe had worked out that even Lex couldn't do anything until the club opened that night so she wouldn't be putting anyone else in danger, it would make no difference to them if she made Lex sweat for a few hours and it might take her mind of Laura.

But more than that, Chloe wanted to be able to prove her theory to him, beyond any measure of doubt. She wasn't sure that he would believe it just based on her word. Sometimes she thought that he respected her but others she felt like he was just playing her. Anyway, just because she was going to save the day for thousands of girls and their families, that didn't mean that she couldn't dig up enough ammo to blackmail Lex into giving her Dad his job back while she was at it. Multitasking was one of Chloe Sullivan's many talents.

"Look Lex, if you have come here to pump me for information about that little club of yours then you're wasting your time. Any information that I have will be straight to the po…"

"No, not that", he interrupted her, "about your apartment. About the financial aid?"

"How long were you standing there?" Her voice grew suspicious.

"Since the end of the first phone call, but that is not the point". Lex tried to get them back to what he considered to be the matter at hand.

"That is not the point?" Chloe balked at him. "How dare you come into my office, listen in on my private phone conversations and then tell me what the point is or isn't".

He should have been disturbed by this, rather than heartened. This was his Chloe, fierce and combative. He felt himself rising to meet her without even thinking about it. "First of all I am not technically inside", he indicating the fact that he was standing in the door way, leaning against the frame, "second I believe that this is not technically your office, and I did not listen into your conversation. I came here to see you, when I arrived the door was open and anyone passing could have heard what you were saying. If you are going to be secretive, you really should pay more attention to little things like that".

Chloe scowled, unable to refute any of those points but really wanting to none the less. Even worse was the fact that she knew that she had screwed up last night, she had been caught and he was rubbing her face in that fact.

"Well if you have said what you came here to say, perhaps you wouldn't mind leaving. I have a lot of work to do", she said frostily.

"No, I have not said what I came here to say", he walked into the office and sat down in one of the chairs, "and as I imagine that what I have to say will take some time, so you might want to take a seat too".

Chloe just scowled at him, was he really offering one of her own seats? Sod who officially owned The Torch, everyone knew that it was hers now!

"Suit yourself", Lex shrugged.

Chloe continued to scowl at him.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lex asked again, this time in a slightly more conciliatory tone. As fun as it was to see her return his fire, it wouldn't do to raise her hackles too much right now, not if he actually wanted an answer.

"What is it exactly that you think that you were entitled to know about?" Chloe wondered, he clearly wasn't going anywhere until they spoke.

Lex thought for a moment. He was entitled to know every damned thing that concerned her, but he did not think that phrasing it like that would get her to tell him anything.

"Why didn't you tell me that you were looking into financial aid for a start? Your Luthor scholarship should have been more than enough to cover all of your college bills, no matter where you chose to apply. If it wasn't, then you should have come to me and I would have increased it".

"What Luthor scholarship?" Chloe wondered.

He just stared at her. She couldn't be serious. How could she not know that she had a scholarship?

"The scholarship that you won back in September, for excellence in journalism. You were sent a letter about it, they sent it to both your old and new house just to make sure that you definitely received it".

Chloe was looking at him warily. Was he trying to play her? "I never received any letter", she said slowly.

No, he wasn't trying to play her, she realised as she stared at him. The look of fury on his face could not be faked even by Lex, he almost looked as if he were going to explode; he was shaking slightly.

"You mean that all this time you have been worrying about how you were going to afford college?" His voice was filled with suppressed rage and Chloe nodded.

"I am going to kill them".

"Who?"

"Whoever's bloody fault it is that you didn't get the letters". How had they not been sent to her? He had sent them to both addresses; her old house and the penthouse … Damn it! Still, they should have been redirected, what kind of person wouldn't even bother to send a letter which wasn't for them back to the post office.

No wonder she had looked so tired if she had been up every night worrying herself sick about that.

Chloe looked at him, her scowl melting away. She had won the award, all of that worrying had been for nothing. Maybe today wasn't such a bad day after all, she would be able to go to college without worrying and what was more, Lex had not just forgotten all about her.

"Well, you won't have to worry about that anymore, it will be taken care of", Lex announced.

"That is very kind Lex, but it already has been taken care of. I got the college financial aid, remember?"

"Yes, but you will take the LuthorCorp money. It will be far more", Lex said off-handedly, still preoccupied with how this confusion had come about.

"Um, I don't know which one I will take", Chloe said unsurely, "I have only just found out about both of them and whilst I am very grateful for your offer, I have earned the financial aid and …"

"There is no question, you will be taking the Luthor money, you earned it as well". She had to take the money, it was not just because she was rejecting him by rejecting his money, she would suffer with financial aid. It would only just be enough for her to get by on, whereas the LC scholarship was more than generous. It would allow her to have everything had wanted for her without worrying.

"Lex, you have no right to tell me what I can and cannot do", Chloe protested.

He was really angry now. He had made a mess, he could admit it. He had hurt her and her father and put them through months of unnecessary stress, now he was trying to put it right and she was trying to stop him. Well he would not be deterred by anyone; for once he knew what was right and he would do it!

"Well then you are really not going to like the rest of this. You are not living in that squalid excuse for an apartment anymore, you and your father are moving today".

She was so shocked that she couldn't speak for several seconds, a rare occurrence for Chloe. When she finally could, "Fuck you", was her eloquent response.

In a trice he was on his feet. He grasped the tops of her arms and dragged her to him so her face was level with his.

"Understand this Chloe, the day that you agreed to go up against my father I gave you my word that I would protect you. That makes you and everything to do with you my responsibility. I know that I have failed so far, I am not sure how when I thought that I had made provisions for you, but I will find out and now I am going to make it right. You are going to go to college without having to worry about money, you are not going to spend another night in that apartment and you are going to eat an entire fucking meal and if you don't like it then too fucking bad. I am Lex Luthor and I will get what I want! And if that means that I have to buy the damned apartment building and every college in the USA, then so be it".

When he finished his rant he panicked. He was his father. He had threatened her, he had acted like Lionel. She would always hate him, she would be afraid of him, she would …

"Is that really supposed to scare me?" Chloe asked, an eyebrow raised. For a moment it had, until her anger had taken over. "All of this me Luthor hear me roar crap. You forget who you are dealing with. I went up against your father and won, so if you want to intimidate me then you had better bring a much bigger gun because quite frankly that was pathetic".

She took a deep breath: "Besides, I already have my front page exposé on your dodgy club all lined up".

Lex was gobsmacked. She must have felt at least a twinge of fear, but her response and attack had been impressive.

"Chloe, I'm sorry", he said, rubbing her arms. He looked deep into her eyes and added, "the last thing that I want to do is hurt you".

"I know", she said, sounding almost sad.

"Do you really have your article all ready? Because seeing as you lost your recording from yesterday, I would tend to doubt it", he tried to continue their verbal judo rather than taking her in his arms and kissing her breathless.

Chloe couldn't help but smile. "You saw through that, huh?" She shrugged. "I have most of it but I am missing a few vital pieces of information".

"I want to help you get them, if what I think is happening is happening then it must be stopped. I know that we are going to have many arguments about several things, but I hope that that won't stop us working together for the greater good", he continued to rub her arms.

"When you put that way, how can I refuse? Although I don't think that we are going to have that many arguments on the subject of my apartment, you just have to stop being such an overbearing ass … you're right we are probably going to argue". She gave him a cheeky smile.

Lex tried to give her the patented Luthor glare but the effect was ruined by his twitching lips.

"4 o'clock?"

"4 o'clock".

"Hey Chloe, I got here as soon as I could, I didn't think that you would be back until later. Did you have a nice time? Did you get your financial aid? Now what is this article you wanted my help researching? Oh, hello Lex", Clark had prattled as he entered, before seeing Lex and eyeing him suspiciously.

Lex looked hurt, Clark had known that she was applying for financial aid and he was the one who she went to for help on articles.

"Clark", Lex nodded his head at his sort-of friend.

Chloe noticed with disapproval the frostiness between the two former friends, she would have to do something about that later. But right now she had more important things to deal with. She no longer wanted to let Clark in on the article, she wanted it to be just her and Lex; it wasn't as if Clark could really do anything to help anyway. However, she still really wanted to get Lex back in some way for being so bossy. She grinned as an idea formed.

"Oh Lex, thank-you for agreeing so much to finally completing that exclusive interview with me".

Both men turned to stare at her in shock. She could have hugged herself with glee, Lex couldn't back down now, he would have to allow her to interview him at some point otherwise it would look as if he had broken his word, something that she had just found out he took very seriously.


	7. Chapter 7

**Part Seven**

Chloe slammed the door of the apartment so hard that she thought that the wall might be in danger of falling. She had been in a bad mood all day, well ever since breakfast. She had thought that she had been so clever getting Lex to agree to an interview and had eagerly watched his face for signs that he was displeased but he had just smiled easily at her and said, "Nicely done, Miss Sullivan".

Then as he turned to leave, he had slipped something into Clark's hand and recommended him to ask her when the last time she had eaten a full meal was. Chloe could have killed him. In fact, as he sauntered out of the office she had tried to go after him and at the very least give him a swift kick up the bum but Clark had barred her way.

"What's going on?" He asked, looking down perplexedly at the 50 dollar note in his hand.

"I am trying to go and do some serious damage to Lex Luthor Armani clad add, if you will just get out of my way", Chloe announced trying to get around Clark, not noticing that she remained unflustered by his proximity.

"Chloe", he sounded exasperated as he held her in place and looked straight in her eyes. She didn't feel rooted as she had earlier, good for her she must be over whatever weakness had seized her in the last 12 hours.

"Lex wanted my cooperation on something, my price was an interview. You don't have to worry, I will be perfectly safe", Chloe was still trying to get around her best friend.

Clark did not look convinced. "I am not sure that Lex can be trusted".

"Well you don't have to be sure Clark, I do. To be honest I am getting a bit sick and tired of people putting their noses where they don't belong"

They exchanged a meaningful glance; they both knew how ironic it was that she was saying this.

"Okay, okay I know that in the past I have not known exactly where the boundaries lay", she held up her hands, "but I am getting better about that and others should try too. I am a big girl Clark".

"I'm sorry Chloe, I know that you can take care of yourself, I just don't want you to get hurt and I'm not sure that Lex won't put you in danger", Clark explained. Chloe had been so brave last year, but he knew that she had been scared. Who wouldn't have been? He also knew that he had played a part in getting her into that situation and had sworn to himself that he would not let her be hurt by the Luthors again.

Chloe was furious with Lex, really she was. She could have strangled him, but hearing someone else doubt his motives made her come to his defence. In fact, it required the majority of her self-control to take a deep breath and softly say: "I really think that he is trying to do the right thing" instead of jumping down Clark's throat.

Clark seemed to consider this for a moment. He couldn't trust Lex, but he did not think that he was all bad and that morning he had seen a glimpse of his old friend. He really did seem to care about Chloe and he usually had his facts straight. He sighed and asked, "Chloe, when was the last time that you ate a full meal?"

Chloe growled at the memory. Trust Clark to take Lex's side over hers. Why was it that men always felt that they had the right to ask questions like that? What was worse, he hadn't even let her explain that she had been so busy the day before since breakfast that she hadn't had time to eat. No, he had just heard "over 24 hours" and had gone into 'Clark mode'. It wasn't as if she normally went so long without food, she was normally really good. Well, okay she was normally good. She tried to make sure that she was home for dinner with her Dad as much as possible but honestly other than that she usually just grabbed the occasional muffin or biscuit. Still that did not mean that Clark Kent and Lex Luthor of all people had the right to quiz her on her eating habits. It was a point that she had made repeatedly as Clark dragged her out of the school and down the road to a café for breakfast.

Last year she would probably have been thrilled that Clark wanted to spend some one on one time with her but now she was just annoyed by his impertinence. She could decide when it was or was not time to eat, although breakfast did sound and smell particularly good so as they had waited in the queue she resigned herself to the idea and then loaded her plate high. The thought of so many pancakes had almost made her sanguine, until Clark had tried to pay for her.

Naturally she had paid for herself and snarled at Clark that the reason why she had not eaten was because she had been too busy, not because she could not afford it. Just because her Dad was out of work, and had been for a while, that did not mean that they needed charity or that he could not afford to feed his daughter, he would have starved himself first before letting that happen.

Clark had of course apologised and explained that he was just using Lex's money as it had been intended.

Chloe snapped back that maybe he shouldn't be so ready to accept things from Lex, especially as he apparently didn't trust him. There had been an uncomfortable silence thereafter. Chloe was seething; Clark had ruined pancake time for her. She had half a mind not to eat them just to spite the interfering boys, but they smelled really good and had Nutella on top so she took a large forkful and decided to think of different methods of revenge.

Even now that she was back in the apartment she was in a bad mood. The rest of the day had been a sea of pointless activity. She had already done all of her school work so in class she tried to piece together what was left of her clues about the club but kept coming to the conclusion that she had got all she could out of the evidence she had. There was nothing to be done until she saw Lex at 4, and Chloe hated being idle.

In the end she had gone to the nurse, who, noticing that she was pale had let her go home early – but only after giving her an interminably long speech on safe sex, teenage pregnancy, and bulimia. At least this way Chloe could go home and take a nap before her meeting with Lex, she was getting almost dizzy with tiredness now. When have coffee stopped working? She was on her seventh of the day at it was barely 11:30.

Trying to look on the bright side, she would get to see her Dad and wouldn't have to rush. She had known that she would have to pop in at home for a few minutes before heading over to Lex's, whatever happened. Gabe would have worried otherwise and he wouldn't be satisfied with a phone call to say that she had got back safe and sound. Now she would be able to assure him of her safety and get a couple of hours shut eye.

"You're home", her Dad bounded over to her and wrapped her in a large hug that pulled her off her feet.

"Um yeah, hi Dad", Chloe smiled a little perplexedly as she returned his hug. She had not seen him this happy in almost 6 months. Over his shoulder she could see that there were boxes stacked three high and what few possessions he had brought with them and left in the living room were missing. That could only mean one thing.

"We're moving", Gabe announced proudly, still not letting her go.

Chloe gaped at her father in shock. "We are? Where? Does this mean that you found a job?"

She knew how much her father hated being out of work and was beyond relieved that he was employed and happy again. Well, she assumed that this meant that he had found a job, he still hadn't actually confirmed that part yet. As happy as she was, a small, very disloyal part of her prayed that he would not say that they were leaving Smallville, but if that was what it took for her father to work, then that was what they would have to do. Maybe it would be a good thing for her to be far away from Lex Luthor.

"We are moving back to our old house and yes I found a job working at LuthorCorp", her father beamed.

Lex. He was behind this, how had she not seen this immediately? He had wanted her to move and now he had got his way.

"Are you sure about this?"

Gabe Sullivan was sitting at on the sofa reading through the newspaper once again, desperate for a help wanted ad of some sort. At this point he would take anything – anything that would get him through the next few weeks, anything to support Chloe.

When he heard a ring at the door bell, he got up with a groan. If this was a Jehover's Witness he was going to be very annoyed, he had already turned them away five times this week already. How many times did he have to explain that they were Episcopalian?

"We don't want to convert", he announced as he opened the door, not looking through the spy hole first because they didn't have one.

"How do you feel about a job offer?" Lex asked.

Gabe stood there looking stunned; Lex was the last person he had excepted to find on his doorstep.

Lex has done his homework on the man in front of him, whose expression was turning slowly from surprise to dislike, and the Sullivan family's situation.

As he had suspected, the letters had been sent to the wrong address, but there was more to it than that. One of the men in his company was a known mole who Lex had been keeping around in the hopes that he would be able to turn him and use him against Lionel. Lex had been sure that the man had only ever handled fake information but somehow he had managed to make several key pieces of information, which would have revealed to Lex what a terrible situation the Sullivans were in, disappear.

When he had found that out, the kid gloves have come off. The man had disappeared, one of his fingers would be sent to Lionel the following morning, and would stay that way until Lex had extracted every single morsel of information man had in him.

Still, none of that would change what Chloe and her father had suffered or the fact that if Lex had just spoken to either of them, he would have known and could have resolved the problem months ago.

Under intense 'cajoling' the mole had also admitted that on Lionel's orders he had called up all of the companies who had been black balling Mr Sullivan and told them that Lex's request that they consider hiring Sullivan had been purely for show as he was being watched by the FBI in the wake of his father's arrest. He had been believed; after all it was something that Lex would have done, had it suited him.

Lex had been so certain that everything had been taken care of that even when he had seen the evidence that it couldn't be so – e.g. the fact that Gabe wasn't actually working – he had convinced himself that everything was fine and that Gabe was just taking a well-deserved break. God, it was ridiculous how blind guilt could make one. Well that was over now, he was here to make things right.

During his first year managing the Smallville plant, Lex had he had built up a considerable liking for Gabe but had never thought to give his file more than a cursory glance. That had been a mistake. Gabe Sullivan was a large man, much larger than Lex, a fact made evident by the way that he was standing in the doorway. Over the years he had obviously let himself go but in the file there had been a picture of him when he was young, he was about Clark's build there, with curly hair and a warm friendly smile.

He had been the captain of the football team and had won a full ride to the college of his choice, Met U. He had been only a year away from graduating when his girlfriend at the time had fallen pregnant. Being the stand-up man he was, he had of course married her and worked whilst trying to finish school. He hadn't managed it. His grades had slipped because he was working so much and he lost his chance to play professional football but he had had no time to sit and bemoan his fate; he had a wife and child to support.

Gabe had got a job at LuthorCorp factory where he had distinguished himself, quickly rising to the rank of supervisor but then becoming stuck. There was no doubt that he could do the next job up, in fact unofficially he did. But in order to enter the next pay grade he needed a college degree. He was so few credits short of graduating that he had thought to go back at some point, in fact by the time that little Chloe had turned three he had got a mortgage on a nice little house in a good area and was ready to do so. Then one day, or rather night, his wife had up and left.

Lex had felt a lump in his throat as he had read that part of the files; they included the child psychologist's transcripts of her conversations with Chloe. The little girl had been so confused, and who could blame her, she had come downstairs one morning to find her mother gone and her father trying to use the waffle iron. The report said that she seemed to have developed quite a phobia of people leaving her and was becoming slightly obsessive about taking notes on people. She needed to know everything about them; she said that if she knew everything then she would know if they were going to leave her. The psychologist suggested that they gave her some time and the possibility of getting her involved in the mini school paper when she moved into the next year, as that would at least provide a good outlet for her note taking.

It was sickening. Lex had lost his own mother, she had been taken away from him but this was entirely different, Chloe's mother was alive and well and living only 30 miles away and she couldn't be bothered to go and visit her little girl. That was in some ways worse than having ones mother die, to know that she was alive and well and just didn't care.

He couldn't imagine how Gabe had got through that time, but he had. The divorce had been terrible, the mother – using the word in the broadest possible sense of the word - had clearly stated that she didn't want the child, but upon finding out that she would have to pay child support she had hit the roof and tried to get Chloe back. It was only when Gabe had agreed to pay the woman more than twice what she would have got in child support that she had backed off. That did not mean that he had wanted to keep his ex-wife from Chloe's life, not by any means. He had written her hundreds of letters asking if she would visit her daughter, if she would at least send her a letter as Chloe was getting worried but none of them had ever been retuned.

There would be a reckoning with the former Mrs Sullivan.

As Lex looked up at the man before him, he could not help but admire him. Lex would have had the woman killed … he still might if, after all this time, she came near Chloe and upset her.

"May I come in?" He asked.

Gabe appeared to be wrestling with himself for a minute before nodding curtly and moving to let him in.

Lex forced himself not to look around the apartment. "I apologise for not having called first but there have been so many misunderstanding that I thought that it would be better if we did this face to face, man to man".

"If you think that you are up to it", Gabe mumbled, unable to help himself.

"Fair enough", Lex didn't take offense. He couldn't really after what he and his father had put the man through. "Look, I know that you don't trust me and quite frankly I cannot think of any reason why you should, except for the fact that you have nothing that I want", 'other than your daughter', he added mentally.

"Not even the sofa bed?" Gabe asked, with a straight face.

Lex smiled. "I never meant for Chloe to become involved with my father, I was too wrapped up in my own problems to notice that he had got his claws into her. By the time that I did, she could not be easily extricated."

"She told me that she came to you with the offer and that you gave her several options to get out of it", Gabe said slowly.

"Yes, but that does not change the fact that she should never have been put in that situation in the first place", Lex started.

"You won't hear any arguments from me".

"And neither should you", Lex continued. "My father played with both of your lives in a way that was inexcusable. I gave Chloe my word that I would protect you both, and I did physically but once it was over I thought that it would be better to distance myself from both of you. I left the provisions which I had made for both of you in the hands of others and became so overconfident from my victory with my father that I never bothered to check that they had been carried out. It was my error".

"What provisions? Your office calls every week with a patronizing offer of work at half my original pay. In fact, it is normally around this time …"

"You will never get another call like that", Lex hastened to assure him. "I only just found the man who had been going against my orders, he won't be making anymore phone calls from where he is", he added darkly.

Before Gabe had the chance to say anything, Lex barrelled on. "I had the company rent your new house from you whilst you were in hiding for more than the mortgage so that you wouldn't lose money and I know that they are continuing to do so, the blacklist against you should have been raised months ago, our job offer to you was supposed to be a six figure one and Chloe received a full scholarship months ago. She just didn't get the letter".

He didn't mention the makeover he had given the other apartment or the security detail stalking Chloe.

Gabe just stared at Lex dumbly. He wasn't sure how this had happened, but he found that he did not doubt him.

"Here is my new offer", Lex handed him a wad of papers. "It is the most legally binding one that my lawyers could come up with. I have brought your old house and everything in it in your name, it is yours. Your new job will be yours for life, you cannot be fired, or at least until you turn 55 which is when you retire with 100,000 a year. There are also some very good benefits and the possibility of more training if you want it".

The larger man took the papers in a trembling hand and read them over. It was more than he could ever have hoped for, it would mean that they would be secure for life and that he could provide for Chloe in the way that she deserved. But he couldn't accept it and told Lex as much.

"It's not charity", Lex insisted. "You deserve this job, you were the one who helped me work out how to keep everyone's job and how to turn that factory around. I should have promoted you years ago", seeing that Gabe was still about to refuse he added, "besides, I acquired over 50 million dollars the day that my father went to jail, not to mention full control over LuthorCorp. By rights, 10% should go to Chloe anyway although I know that she would never accept it. This is a tiny percentage of that, which you fully deserve".

"I don't know", Gabe sank down on the settee.

"Look at it another way", Lex said, sitting down next to him, "this contract gives you power over how things are run. You will be able to stop other people getting trampled on. All of those ideas you had before, you can now implement".

"How do I know that you won't break the contract later if I do something that you don't like?" Gabe asked, already thinking of several initiatives that would probably drive Lex crazy.

Lex shrugged, "It's an iron clad contract. Although I probably could still break it somehow, it would take ages and cost far too much. Besides, I am a Luthor, it would be easier for me to just have you killed".

Gabe laughed and shook Lex's hand.

Chloe needed to sit down, this was a lot to take in all at once. She wanted to scream at her father, refuse to go, refuse to be lured into another Luthor plan but her father explained the situation to her, held her hand and asked her to trust him.

She sighed, "It looks like we are moving".


	8. Chapter 8

**Part Eight**

"You no good, snivelling, manipulative bastard! Who the hell do you think you are to decide what happens in my life? I told you that I wouldn't be moving so you went behind my back and got my Dad involved? If he weren't so happy I swear that I would stay in this building just to spite you, but don't think that you have won and don't imagine even for one second that I am coming to the mansion this afternoon. If I have to pack up you are coming to help me and your stamina had better live up to reputation because I have lots of boxes to fill, bring anything you need with regards to the club".

Beep. End of message one. Message two.

"And another thing, where the hell do you get off telling Clark to ask me questions about my eating habits. I will have you know that whether I do or don't eat is no concern of yours".

"You haven't been eating?"

"What? Of course I have Dad, I am just on the phone to Lex, or rather Lex's machine".

"Ah, that would explain the yelling".

"I didn't know you were still here".

"Clearly".

"I thought that you were going for more boxes".

"I am, but I had only just got out of the door when I heard yelling so I came back to check that you were alright".

"I'm fine Dad".

"Okay, see you later. Give Lex a hard time from me".

"Bye Dad".

"Oh and poppet, remember to have your nap after your phone call, you look tired. We can talk about your eating habits later".

"No good crumby bastard".

"That had better have been directed at Lex".

"It was".

"Good".

End of message two.

Lex grinned as he sped along the roads towards the centre of Smallville in a U-Haul, those had to be two of his favourite messages he had ever received. He hit the replay button again.

It was four o'clock on the dot when Lex knocked on the Sullivan's soon to be former door and found that it was opened almost immediately by Gabe who gave him a friendly smile and waved him in but put a finger to his lips indicating that he should not make too much noise.

"I thought that Chloe said 4:30, not 4:00. She isn't up yet and you should never wake her up until you have some coffee ready", he whispered and pointed over to a coffee maker that was still clearly in the process of making coffee.

Lex smiled at the older man and noticed that the coffee maker was the only piece of kitchen equipment that was still on the side. Everything else was bare, only the sofa bed which had come with the apartment remained.

As Gabe filled three mugs, he explained, "I have packed everything else up already and once Chloe is up I am driving it all over to the new house so that I can do some unpacking and get dinner going before she arrives. Nothing in her room is packed yet – she's been having a little nap – so you will have to help her with that as well as taking everything down to her car".

Lex nodded, shocked that he was going to be allowed to stay in the apartment alone with Chloe.

Obviously reading his expression correctly Gabe placed a hand on Lex's shoulder. "Chloe may think that I am oblivious but I know that she hasn't been killing herself over a school project recently. It has something to do with a big story she's working on. I know that there is nothing that I can say or do to deter her and if, as I suspect, you are working on it to then I know that you will keep her safe".

"I give you my word".

"And as we both know, if Chloe is working on a story then you could be dipped in nutella and she would still pay no attention to you unless you have a lead. So, for today at least, you can be here with her alone without concern", he explained.

"But", he added his hand tightening, "that will not be the case after this is over and when you start courting her properly. Then you will be expected to have her home at a reasonable time with not a hair out of place and if you ever upset her then I don't care who you are, I will hunt you down and kill you".

Gabe's stare bore into Lex and the millionaire knew that he was telling the truth. His threats were far more convincing than Lionel's, the man was also a good deal more perceptive than him.

"How did you know that I had intentions towards Chloe?" He asked.

Her father snorted, "You're only human. Of course you have a crush on my little Chloe Bear, what competition does she have? Lana?" Another snort.

Lex could only agree and accept the coffee offered him. He watched with some amusement as Gabe placed the second mug on the countertop and then knocked softly on Chloe's door and upon hearing what sounded like a groan popped in with the third coffee cup and returned without it.

He was about to ask what that was about when he heard a thud coming from inside the bedroom followed by a grunt.

"She gets her grace from my side of the family", her father quipped as he motioned for Lex to get out of the way and back into the living room. A second later the door opened and Chloe shuffled into the kitchen an empty coffee cup in one hand and made her way straight for the second one.

Chloe had clearly not even realised that anyone else was present yet, she just stood there gulping down the steaming hot liquid in her crumpled clothes from earlier that day. As she finally turned to face them, he could see that her hair was ruffled and there was an adorable scowl on her face.

"You made it half decaff again", she complained, obviously talking to her father.

"Yes honey, I did", her father moved back around her and into the kitchen to unplug the coffee maker.

"I like full caff", she looked forlornly at her now empty cup.

"Yes, well I like it when you don't hover like a humming bird".

Chloe looked around the room clearly expecting to find a third cup, so Lex held out his to her.

She took it and about half way through it seemed to realise where she was, who he was and that she was angry with him.

"Did you bring everything that we are going to need?" She asked curtly.

"Yes, I got everything".

She nodded and turning to her Dad announced, "I am going to go and get changed".

"Alright sweetie pie. I am going to take this stuff home and start setting up. Dinner around 7:00?"

Chloe make a noise of agreement and went back into her room closing the door behind her.

"Take care of her Lex", Gabe warned as he picked up the coffee maker and headed towards the door.

Lex went over to open it for him as he had his hands full.

"Oh, we are having lasagne so bring your appetite". With that Gabe was off leaving Lex flabbergasted.

He was still shocked when Chloe walked back into the room, having changed her clothes. Seeing his expression she raised an eyebrow.

"Gabe invited me to dinner tonight", he explained.

Chloe felt a knife strike her heart. It was just a dinner invitation, her father would have extended such an invitation to anyone who helped them move or who had been working with Chloe on a project and yet it clearly meant so much to Lex.

It was very hard to stay mad at him when she thought of how little love he must have experienced in his life, but stay mad at him she must. To distract herself she surveyed the room to see how much packing her father had got done, everything. During this operation, Lex remained silent and Chloe found that such silence weighed on her; she felt that she should say something, but what? She was torn between the desire to hit him and to hug him.

She looked over at him and the desire to hug him began to outweigh her other desires, so she stamped on it. It was with studied nonchalance that she shrugged her shoulders and said, "He is very kind". She turned away from him again before continuing, "I would have shown you the door".

Lex stared at the back of her head, trying to tell if she was joking or not. She had not been friendly towards him, and he knew that she was angry but did she really want him to leave? She had invited him over hadn't she?

He couldn't tell a lot from the back of her head, so he turned her around and looked deep into her eyes. "Do you want me to leave? We could talk somewhere else if you don't feel comfortable having me here".

She looked up at him in surprise, "No, I don't want you to go", now she felt really uncomfortable. God for a supposed genius when it came to reading people the man could be dense! She hadn't been hinting that she wanted him to leave, if he left then she couldn't give him the cold shoulder or shout at him. She wanted him to know that he was being punished. Besides, they really did need to discuss what they were going to do at the club, not that either of them were in any fit state to do so quite yet. She needed to find a way to breeze passed this awkward moment, Lex being solicitous could be described in no other way.

"You are just trying to get out of helping me pack, aren't you?"

Lex smirked. She didn't want him to leave!

"Come on, you big drama queen", she led him into her bedroom.

"Well Miss Sullivan, I have to admit that I thought that an offer like this would take a little longer.

She threw a cardboard box at his head, "Start packing my books up while I attack my wardrobe. And tell me about what you have figured out".

"Bossy", he muttered as he caught the box.

"If you can't handle a strong woman you are in the wrong apartment", Chloe told him.

Lex looked over at her as she opened her wardrobe and surveyed the carnage; she had obviously just picked everything up off the floor at some point and chucked it in there. He had no idea whether she had meant what she had said to stir up the images it had, sometimes she seemed so innocent but at others he was certain that that was just an act and that every move she made, every word she spoke was designed just to drive him crazy.

She could certainly drive him to madness at that moment. She was wearing a pair of faded jeans that highlighted the curves beneath them and a tank top which he was fairly certain must have had hidden support because he could see no evidence of a bra underneath it. He longed to take her into his arms and pull her up on her last inadvertent innuendo but stopped, he didn't want to take advantage of her.

He stopped his train of thought at that point, hadn't she been complaining that he was not treating her like an equal? He smirked, if she didn't want him to hold back then he wouldn't.

"Oh, believe me", Lex stalked up beside her, "I have no problem _handling_ strong women". Now he would see if Chloe Sullivan was really up to dealing without him trying to be a gentleman and treat her with kid gloves.

Chloe turned to face him, she looked a little shocked by his presence but not particularly flustered … yet. Lex leant in closer, his lips mere centimetres from hers.

"Always so arrogant Lex?" Chloe questioned, tilting her head to the side - he couldn't be sure whether she did this in question or so that her lips were in the perfect position to be kissed. It would have been so easy to bridge the gap, but he didn't. It was possible that this was all in his head, maybe Chloe didn't know the effect she had on him. At least he could judge the effect he had on her.

He trailed his hand down the side of her face. She tried to hide the hitch in her breathing and supressed the urge to challenge him to prove it, but could not stop her pupils dilating. Well that answered one question, she was certainly attracted to him … physically at any rate.

"Oh, I wouldn't call it arrogance", he purred noticing her reaction. "More … confidence", he contemplated her tempting lips.

Chloe's brain turned to mush but her competitive instinct did not. She wasn't sure how she had got into this competition, but she certainly was and she would not let Lex win. Noticing the direction of his gaze, she licked her lips and heard a groan. Their eyes locked and they both knew that she had done it on purpose and what his reaction had been.

"Maybe you are overly confident, as you put it", she suggested, annoyed that she could not come up with anything wittier.

"Maybe, but I have yet to find a woman I couldn't tame", his breath was hot on her skin as he angled his head even closer to her.

"Maybe you are going for the wrong women", she said in a whisper. Then, thinking that she sounded too weak added, "Brunettes, I mean".

Lex grinned, "Anyone would think that you were jealous", he suggested.

That broke the spell, Chloe looked flustered. "I am not jealous", she took a step backwards and due to the limited size of the room, found herself against her chest of draws.

Lex raised an eyebrow, enjoying the flush which came to her cheeks.

"I'm not".

"Of course not", Lex soothed her. His expression still teasing, "But you are rather dismissive of my skills".

She shrugged; something Lex noticed with amusement she always did with him when she was trying to hide her feelings, that and try to avoid eye contact.

"I don't think that you are as powerful as you think you are".

"It's not about power Chloe", he told her as she turned around and busied herself with the things on the side, Lex took the opportunity to close the gap between them and place his hands on her hips. "I'll let you into a secret", he whispered in her ear "It gets very boring when the taming is too easy".

Chloe gulped.

How had this happened? This wasn't how this afternoon was supposed to go, he was supposed to be helping her pack, strategizing and apologising not this! She braced her hands on the dresser. She could feel his hand body against her, she could smell his scent and hear his voice which had become a little raspy with that last admission. She had to end this now or she would end up begging him to take her.

"Lex, what are you doing?" She asked, as if she genuinely had no idea what he was about. It was a tactic that had worked before, maybe it would again.

"Obeying orders", he reached around her to grab the masking tape, "I couldn't pack your books without this". It was kind of him, he was giving him a way out as she had earlier when he had inadvertently revealed how much the dinner invitation had meant to him, but she was sure that he knew what effect he was having on her.

"Oh, yeah. Of course", Chloe tried to sound composed but failed. At least she didn't have to face him, she could stay fiddling here for as long as she needed to.

"You know how good I am at taking orders", he joked as he headed back over to the other side of the room, giving her some space. Besides Gabe had been right, Chloe would be obsessed with her story until it was completed. There was no sense in letting himself get worked up only to know that she would eventually stop him.

He got to work on going through her books. She had a rather impressive collection, everything from history to politics. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Chloe started to seem a little calmer and had also started packing.

He sighed. "Promise that if I show you mine, you'll show me yours?" He asked, taking out his phone.

Chloe looked around at him with wide eyes and noticed his phone. She could have just said "Okay", and if she had thought about it she would, but her verbal judo reflexes were too well-honed and she responded with the knee jerk response, "Honey, you can't handle mine" before thinking and adding, "What have you got?"

Anxious to avoid his amused gaze she sat down on her bed. Lex joined her and showed her the images that they had found.

"Oh bugger!"


	9. Chapter 9

**Part Nine**

Lex placed the penultimate two boxes in the back of the U-haul and lent against the side of vehicle as he waited for Chloe. She had taken a few minutes longer than him to get down the stairs holding her box of cuddly toys. Lex had, of course, offered to go back for it after he was done with his two boxes but the glare that Chloe had sent his way had made it quite clear that she intended to carry her own cuddly toys. As if the fifteen times she had so far refused to let him carry all of her boxes had not already made her feelings on box carrying/letting him do things for her quite clear.

He took his phone out and checked his new messages as he waited. He and Chloe had agreed to declare a moratorium on everything that had happened that day for the next few hours so that she could get unpacked before they went on their mission. The last thing that either of them needed was to be distracted because they were so angry with each other.

It was strange that the planning of their mission had occasioned surprisingly few disagreements. They both thought alike with regards to the most practical way of going about getting the information they needed – although Lex had thought that he could manage it without Chloe. As long as they had a common goal, they seemed to be able to get along tolerably well.

He watched as she came around the side of the building and could not help but chuckle at the sight. She really was stubborn. Even now she clearly getting a little tired, she still kept going, he could not imagine Lana doing that. She would have been more than happy to Lex and the movers take over.

When Chloe reached the halfway point across the car park, Lex straightened and headed over to her. He had learnt that he could meet her half way without eliciting too many disapproving lectures.

Upon reaching her he tried to take the box but felt her resist. How many times were they going to go through this? He sighed and said, "It's just a box, Chloe".

She relented, but asked, "Why is it so important to you?"

"Other than the fact that you should be resting? Because my mother raised me to be a gentleman", he carried the box over to the back of the truck.

"Is carrying a couple of boxes going to make you a gentleman?" She asked before she could stop herself.

Lex raised an eyebrow. "Maybe. Is letting someone else do something for you going to stop you being the independent pain in the butt who took on the Luthors and won?"

Chloe raised an eyebrow in an obvious imitation of Lex. "Maybe".

He laughed. How was it that mere hours before they entered the trenches, with so much still remaining unsaid between them, that she could make him laugh?

She really was splendid. She was the bravest person that he had ever met, and probably the most intelligent as well. The world without her … well it didn't bare thinking about.

"Don't even think about it", Chloe stopped him in the middle of his thoughts.

"You don't have to be there with me tonight".

"Yes, I do", she placed her hand on his arm. "I found out about all of this, I made the promise to Laura and I am going to see this through. We planned this out, nothing will go wrong and, if it does, I will be right by your side when it does".

"The world won't miss Lex Luthor, Chloe Sullivan on the other hand …"

Chloe snorted. "First of all, nothing is going to go wrong. Second of all, every newspaper in the world would record your death, I would be lucky to be remembered in The Torch".

"You know that you would get more than that. You know that no one could ever forget you. It is not too late to turn back, everything you need to be done would still be done, just …" He didn't get the words "without you" out.

"There was no need for you to be in those tunnels that day, but you were".

Their gazes met. It was unlikely but they could die that night and so much would be left unsaid. Chloe shook her head, "I had better get back upstairs and have one last check around".

"I'll come with you".

Chloe rolled her eyes. "Have you ever thought about getting a dog Lex? They will go around with your all day without complaint".

"I am more of a cat person". He explained as he locked the U-haul and followed her back into the building, admiring the fit of her jeans.

"Clearly, but they are far more choosy and I am not sure that we could find one who would put up with you. A nice soppy dog however would look up at you with adoration, slobber all over you … actually coming to think of it you're right, you need a cat. Someone to put you in your place".

"I thought that that was what I had you for", he quipped.

Chloe span around but did not stop, so she ended up walking backwards. Lex did not quite level his gaze in time. Chloe gave him a knowing smile and raised both of her eyebrows at him. "I wasn't aware that you had me, now hurry up and although I know that I am hot, please, stop checking out my ass".

"As you wish", he jogged up to her and watched as she span back around, "although you should know Little Miss Arrogant that I was looking at the spider attached to your jeans".

"You are making that up", Chloe accused, not in the slightest ruffled by being called by his new pet name for her – his other being Duchess Chloe von Bossy Boots.

"No", he said with a straight face before swatting her behind.

"Oh", Chloe gasped as she jumped, before putting her hand before her to rub the tingling spot with a frown.

"Got it", Lex smiled at her innocently.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Just you be careful Lex Luthor that I don't see any spiders crawling all over you".

Chloe insisted upon Lex going up the stairs first on the way back up to the apartment. She thought that this was a brilliant plan although Lex may have seen through it as, while she was opening the apartment door, he asked, "See any spiders?"

"No, it was rather hard to see around this enormous ass that kept getting in my face. A few too many cream puffs, me thinks".

She waited to hear Lex's comeback as they entered the apartment. She loved having the last word but normally she had no competition, being challenged by Lex was almost as much fun as wining. Almost. Half of the time when she said snarky things to him, it was as much because she wanted to see what he was going to say as it was because she was actually annoyed with him.

A few seconds passed, that wasn't normal. He was never lost for words for that long. She looked at his face and sighed, yet again he was thinking about the apartment and how she had 'suffered' all of these months. She thought of trying to explain once again that she wasn't some flower that was going to die after a few days without sunlight but thought that it probably wouldn't work and could cause an argument that she didn't want to have at that moment, - although she knew that she was just delaying the inevitable.

"Don't get so overwrought Lex. Just because you could not survive for one day without complete luxury and a servant to blow your nose, that doesn't mean that everyone is so delicate", she decided that teasing him was not just fun but also the right way to get out of a difficult situation.

Another smile, "I'll try to remember that". She was evidently sticking to their unspoken agreement to let sleeping dogs lie for that one evening. He had a feeling that he would get an ear bashing tomorrow morning about the house, if she could manage to wait that long. He knew that Chloe had a supreme level of self-control, but he also knew that she felt passionately about things and keeping quiet on something that clearly annoyed her so greatly went against everything in her nature. Lex wondered how long the truce would last … not long apparently.

They scanned the living/dining room and opened all of the kitchen cabinets just to double check, but they had not forgotten anything. As Chloe went in to check the bathroom, she called out to him over her shoulder that she thought that she left something in the bedroom but that she could handle it – and it would fit in her car -, so he could get going.

Ignoring this last suggestion, just as he had the last few times she had said that she was almost ready and could handle it alone from there, Lex went into her bedroom and seeing nothing left, checked under her bed.

"Ah ha", he declared in triumph as he saw the large cardboard box. At least this one wouldn't require packing and they could be on their way. He pulled it out and then climbing to his feet, picked it up. It wasn't very heavy. It got even lighter as the bottom of the box broke and its contents ended in a heap at his feet.

"Damn it", he swore, he hoped that he had not broken anything. He surveyed the pile hoping not to see a family photo or something of that sort, destroyed.

Lex's jaw dropped.

He sank to his knees and was shocked as his eyes racked over the treasure chest. With a shaking hand he reached out for the nearest object to him. It was a book and sticking out of the top of it there was a row of photos with a man he recognised as Jimmy Olsen. He had read files about him.

Henry James Olsen: red curly hair, blue eyes, freckles, liked wearing bowling shirts and wanted to be a professional photographer. Not the man that Lex would have picked for Chloe – too much hair - but he was a good boy and was in the same academic year as she was, he was really the person who she should be with. It had never sat well with Lex that she had had a boyfriend, of sorts, while she was interning at The Daily Planet, but she was happy and so he had tried to be happy for her … while having her followed by a security detail, of course.

Lex studied the photos. In the picture Jimmy had his arms around her and they were smiling. He had never had a happy relationship like that; the kind where you went out in the day time just to enjoy each other's company. He was jealous. The book that the photos were in had opened easily where the bookmark was, clearly that passage had been read more than most – although the entire book was clearly well worn.

He shouldn't read it, he knew that it was wrong to do so, but he was fascinated. He had already packed up part of her book collection and she hadn't minded him doing that, in fact she was the one who had told him to pack up her books. She had even seemed to enjoy his running commentary on her collection and suggestions of what she might like – it turned out that she had more that she had just not brought with her when they had moved.

They had had a rather nice conversation about some English 19th century novels actually. She had even lent him one that he had never heard of, saying that he **had** to read it. It was fascinating as every book was a glimpse into her and more importantly after looking at him oddly for a few seconds, she had answered all of his questions and then asked quite a few of her own. That meant that she was allowing him to know more about her. Maybe she wouldn't be too mad about him skim reading a bit of this one. Oh great, he was going crazy. She was going to mind, of course she was going to mind. This was completely wrong. He was going to put the book back and pretend that he had never seen any of this. That was the only correct thing to do.

It was a very interesting book. The picture on the front had been of a respectable period couple but he felt that this was not the same as the other ones on her shelves; this was no Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer.

_"My Lord, what are you about?" The fair young maiden gasped, as she felt herself being pressed up against the wall of her father's castle by the young noble._

_He grinned wickedly …_

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Lex's head whipped around so quickly that he heard the bones in the back of his neck crack, but he did not think that she was in the mood to give him any sympathy for this. He opened his mouth to speak but Chloe didn't give him the chance to answer.

"Lex this is the fucking limit! I can't believe that I actually felt sorry for you because you had such an awful childhood, because you get all worked up about a simple dinner invitation, because .."

Lex was on his feet in a second. "I didn't ask for you to feel sorry for me. I don't want your pity!"

"Well I don't want your charity but that doesn't seem to mean anything to you does it?"

"It wasn't charity, it is making up for what I did! You're father understands that, so why can't you wrap your thick skull around it?" He roared.

"What you did? It is always about you isn't it Lex", she threw her hands up in the air, "As if no one else in the world can make a decision by themselves. I got into the mess on my own, you helped pull me out, as far …"

"I shouldn't have let you get into that situation", once again he didn't let her finish her sentence.

"Because I am too stupid to know what I am doing?" Chloe demanded, raising her voice to the point where she could probably have been heard on the Kent's farm.

Determined to at least match her in volume, he bellowed, "No, because you are too special to lose". The words were out before he could think about them.

The room was quiet except for the sound of their hard, angry breathing.

Lex took a deep breath, trying to get himself under control. Why was it that whenever he was around Chloe he seemed to end up in a fight or losing control? Once he had decided that he had a strong enough hold on his emotions, he tried: "It wasn't charity. You got caught up in my family's drama, I was just trying to put it right".

"That doesn't mean that you have the right to tell me what to do", Chloe said, also sounding a little calmer.

"Yeah well, I probably won't stop doing it".

Chloe had to look away from him. Just when she was ready to hit him, he said something like that and she all she wanted to do was laugh. Well, she wasn't going to laugh! She was going to glare at him. She tried, but making eye contact taxed her resolve too greatly and she let a little chuckle escape her. She had to stop looking at him if she was going to tell him off, she looked down at the floor and remembered what he had done. Her face turned blazing red.

"It is nothing to be embarrassed about", he told her. "It is perfectly natural", he ignored what he could see out of the corner of his eye. That certainly wasn't natural, for one thing it was too large and the wrong colour … and they normally came attached to something else.

"Please spare me the talk about how these feelings are a natural part of growing up", Chloe growled, and she saw the direction of his gaze. Until that moment she wouldn't have thought that it was possible for her to turn are redder. "An explanation would be appreciated though", she ground out.

Lex was trying to diffuse the situation but she didn't seem to be responding to his positive efforts, so he thought that he might as well rise to the challenge and be the ass she clearly thought him. "Well, I am not really the person to explain that situation to you but I will do my best. You see the characters love each other very much and now that they are married feel that they want to express that love physically in a way that you mustn't if you are not married … and don't want babies. You see the man …"

Chloe looked at him in disbelief, she was now on her knees trying to hide some items under others – it wasn't making the situation any better. He sighed and sat down next to her. "I didn't mean to go through your stuff. I heard you say that you had left something in here so I came in to get it, the bottom fell out of the box", he took the box off her and turned it over to show her the damage.

She said nothing for a moment. She could feel him staring at her and wished that the ground would open up and swallow her whole. She hated feeling embarrassed, especially in front of him.

"You didn't have to read it", she pointed out.

"I'm sorry. My curiosity got the better of me", he tried to be conciliatory, but couldn't resist adding, "something tells me you know something about curiosity".

She bit her lip. She scowled. He could have meant general journalistic curiosity, she had plenty of that and everyone knew it. She looked at him. No, he meant sexual curiosity and they both knew it. She looked down at the ground, nope it was not going to be accommodating and gobble her up, she would just have to deal with this on her own. Bugger.

Chloe could take the out – journalistic curiosity - , but that wouldn't defuse the tension. She looked at him a little more closely and saw the warmth in his eyes. As much as it pained her to admit it, she knew that he didn't judge her for this revelation the way that Clark or Lana would have. Oh well, he knew about it and there was no sense in trying to pretend that there wasn't now an elephant in the room. She might as well own it, at least that way she was in control, or at very least could name the elephant – Prudence seemed like a nice name for an elephant. What was the phrase: if you were in on the joke, people couldn't be laughing at you?

"Oh well, at least now you have learnt something for your next disaster, that I'm sure I'll have to get you out of. Maybe it will help you keep a woman satisfied for longer next time", she grinned and hit him on the arm.

"Excuse me?"

"I figured out the truth about both of your marriages and the girl with the missing earring, in case you have forgotten", Chloe elaborated.

"Oh I know that, I was shocked that you thought that there was something new to me in that passage", he looked smug.

Chloe looked shocked.

"You are pulling my leg", she surmised.

He shook his head.

"No way you know the stuff that the hero of that book knows. If you did, you wouldn't have had so many failed marriages. Women with men who can fuck like that don't try to kill their husbands, they just don't! Killing is a sign of frustration", Chloe announced. Turning the tables on him was fun.

"Something you know all about, if this collection is anything to go by", he looked down a vibrator. "Olsen a little too wholesome?"

Chloe didn't even both asking how he knew about Jimmy. "He was very nice"

"Well if you ever feel like moving up from 'nice' you know where to find me", Lex smirked.

She rolled her eyes, "All mouth and no trousers. You men are like that, aren't you?" She tweaked the end of his nose gently, "Wouldn't you be shocked if I took you up on that?" She grinned at the thought of him recoiling, trying not to think of how much it had hurt was Clark had done that when she had offered herself to him.

"Try me", he wouldn't back down and judging by the spark hidden behind the surprise in her eyes, neither would she.

Chloe tilted her head to the side, trying to work out what game he was playing. Deciding that it was just a case of trying to see who would become embarrassed first and back down, she decided to take him on.

She was not blind, she had noticed that every so often Lex's eyes would rest on her top and was satisfied that she had found his weakness – Lex was a breast man … although he seemed to admire her legs and bottom as well. Chloe ran her hand through her hair, absentmindedly. Her fell to the side, revealing a long expanse of neck leading down to the swell of her breast. Bingo, Lex's attention was following the course she had intended.

"I don't Lex", she sounded really concerned. "We are going to be working together; I wouldn't want things to get weird between us". Their eyes found each other, both trying to suss the other out, neither of them could look away from the other or they would lose.

She licked her lips. "But if the reason why we are always fighting is because of the sexual tension then maybe it would be better to just get it out of the way".

Lex raised an eyebrow at her.

"Just one, hard, wild, unforgettable, earth shattering, bone melting fuck", she suggested, drawing out each word.

She had gone too far. He knew that Chloe would never have sex without feeling attached and those words just didn't sound right coming out of her mouth, at least not this early in a relationship.

"Now we both know that you are playing me", he said as he shifted his weight closer to her. His voice was low and dangerous. It sent chills down Chloe's spine.

"Maybe. But aren't you dying to find out?" She asked, running her hand up his arm. She loved feeling the muscles jumping beneath her feather light touch.

The phone rang.

"Damn it", the ejaculated in unison.

It was the house phone, which was still plugged in as they would not be taking it.

"Clark?" Chloe questioned as she answered it in frustration, "Yes, I'm fine. Sorry I don't have time to talk right now, we are moving back to our old house. Yes, it is rather sudden. I will tell you about to tomorrow. No, I don't need any help. Thank-you. Yeah, okay. Bye".

When Chloe turned back to look at Lex he was fixing her box and had already put her book in it. Clark really knew how to ruin a moment.

"So I guess that we had better get this packed up and be off", Chloe said joining him, once more, on the floor. They started chucking things in the box, Lex trying desperately not to notice what he was touching or think of Chloe using those items. Gosh h … it was hard.

Lex was just about to tape the box up when Chloe reached in to grab something, "Can't go on our mission tonight, without these. You never know when they will come in handy. Ah, that Jimmy, always so helpful".

Chloe slipped a pink fuzzy pair of handcuffs into her back pocket and Lex groaned.


	10. Chapter 10

**Part Ten**

Lex wiped a trickle of sweat from his brow as he helped getting the last of the boxes up to Chloe's new (or should that be old?) bedroom. Gabe was right behind him and after he dropped the final box on Chloe's unmade bed, he stretched his back he looked around with a satisfied smile, "Well that looks about everything. I am sure that it will be all over her floor within the hour".

"You don't think that she will be focusing on her private Wall of Weird first?" Lex asked.

"Probably", Gabe said before the implication caught up with him. "How did you know about that?" Gabe asked, his eyes narrowing. He was fairly certain that Lex knew more about them than he had let on, but sneaking around their home …

"I didn't. I just guessed, she had one at school so it seemed likely that she would have had one at home too", Lex explained. He was not used to explaining himself to people, he could normally go months, if not years without having to do so but in one day with the Sullivans he had already had to explain more than he had had to in the previous year. He should be angry.

"She did have one", Gabe nodded, seeming to accept Lex's explanation. "Speaking of Chloe, I should probably go and tell her that we are done so that I can take over dinner preparations and she can come and tell you where to put everything".

Lex grinned, the man certainly knew his daughter. A thought then occurred to him. "How did you get her to do it?"

"Do what?" Gabe wondered.

"Let us carry the boxes up here without her". There had been a bit of an argument on the subject and he really couldn't work out how anyone was supposed to really win any dispute against Chloe; it was hard enough to get her to relent … and even when you did, she didn't stay down for long.

Gabe stared at him disbelievingly for a minute or two before he burst out laughing. He found it so funny that his legs couldn't support him and he collapsed onto the bed - disturbing several boxes -, holding his sides to keep them from splitting. When he finally calmed down enough to answer Lex, he was wiping tears from his eyes.

"She isn't that bad", he declared. "Well alright, to you she probably is. But I just told her that I wasn't going to discuss it any further, she was going to go and supervise the lasagne (by which I mean snack on carrot sticks) and I was going to carry the boxes".

"I tried telling her that I was going to carry the boxes and that was that, but it didn't work", Lex groused.

"Well of course that didn't work! God, what did they spend their time teaching you in school?" Gabe looked at him in a slightly paternal way. "First of all, if you use that tone of voice with Chloe she will rebel. You could tell her to do something she wanted and had already decided to do and she would still rebel".

Lex smirked, he had already worked out that much about Chloe.

"Second of all", Gabe held up a second finger to indicate his point, "I'm her Dad".

"So she has to do what you say", Lex finished for him.

Gabe snorted. "So she doesn't want to worry me".

"Look Lex, I haven't always been the best father to Chloe, I haven't given her everything that she needed and I certainly haven't been able to replace her lost mother, but it has been just us since she was three. We love each other fiercely and Chloe has looked after me just as much through the years as I have her", he tried to explain.

Lex nodded, but could not really understand a relationship like that.

"She knows that I am over bearing and over protective, and that I always will be because to me she is the earth, the moon and the stars. But more than that, she knows that I see her for what she is, a strong, confident, intelligent young woman … who also just happens to be my little baby. She might need to prove herself to the rest of the world, prove that she is not her mother's daughter, but not to me." He looked straight at Lex, trying to see if he really understood what he was trying to tell him.

"I am not sure that carrying a box proves anything", Lex muttered.

"Probably not, but it does to her. But it is also about protection. As I am sure you know", he didn't add "through your research", "her mother left when she was very young, her aunt died only a year later, her younger cousin was sent off to boarding school and her uncle and Lois travelled all over the world. She has lost almost everyone who was ever important to her, she's desperate not to lose me too. She wants to look after me, because as we can both see", he patted his stomach, "I am a wilting flower who clearly needs his daughter's help".

The joke did not succeed in lightening the mood though.

"How is your heart condition?" Lex inquired, "You haven't been to see a doctor".

"No, I haven't. But it is completely cured and has been for a while". He left it at that and the look he gave Lex told him not pursue it.

For once Lex did as he was supposed to and let the matter drop, but could not stop himself from asking the other question that had been plaguing him. "What did you mean: has to prove that she is not her mother's daughter?"

"That she is not someone who only takes from others", Gabe explained in a monotone, as he got to his feet.

"I know about the divorce settlement", Lex said as the older man started to make his way towards the door.

He paused. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"I have a team of excellent lawyers, they could get you out of the payments, I'm sure. Besides, Chloe is 16, Moira would have no power", Lex pointed out.

"No", Gabe spoke with an authority that Lex had rarely heard before. Seeing Lex's questioning look he continued, "Chloe can never know about that arrangement. She can never know that her mother doesn't care".

The hurt in his eyes as he said that, pierced Lex's soul. He tried to think of something to say but Gabe just smiled tightly at him and announced, "I am going to go and fetch Chloe".

Lex just nodded and sat down on spot Gabe had just vacated on Chloe's bed. How could someone not care about Chloe? His head lolled back and he contemplated the ceiling. It was stark white like the rest of the walls in the house. It had been a new build – used as a show home – when they have brought it and they hadn't had the chance to do much to it since then, to say that they had been busy would have been a terrible understatement.

As Lex thought about it, he couldn't work out if he had seen any signs of the Sullivan touch so far.

They lived at the end of a cul-da-sac right next to the golf-club; it was a quiet, leafy area. Other than the mansion, it was definitely the most exclusive postcode in Smallville. He approved of it as an area for Chloe's father, and was happy that this meant that they would have access to the club and its leisure facilities. Chloe looked as if she could use a massage and as he doubted that she would allow him to help relieve her tension, that was the next best thing.

The front garden was neat but exactly the same as all of the other ones on the street. Whilst he did not actually know what kind of flower Chloe preferred he was willing to bet that it was not the insipid pink roses that littered the area, those seemed more fitted to Lana. He thought that Chloe would probably prefer either something simple and elegant like a daisy or something more colourful.

The house itself – like all of the ones on the new development – was mock English Victorian but with an American twist, the twist being the double garage. The redbrick double frontage was imposing but welcoming with crisp white windows and a black door. Lex was pleased to notice a spy hole and chain on the door as well as a full alarm system as he entered.

Inside the house was pretty neutral as well, from what Lex had glimpsed at least. The house felt a little cold from not having been lived in for so long – Lex had not actually have anyone living there whilst 'renting' it - but now that the heating was on it was warming up nicely. The hallway and what little he had seen of the other rooms, all had traditional honey coloured parquet hard wood floors in a zig zag pattern leading up to a central staircase which was also in the traditional style. Lex had wondered whether the Sullivan's preferred the traditional style or if this was just what they ended up with. He had looked around at the furniture for a better idea. He had not had chance to explore the rest of the house on his way to and from the U-haul. The only piece of furniture he had really noticed on his journeys had been in the hallway.

Hanging from the ceiling there had been a modest chandelier, which reflected nicely off the large mirror on the wall. The only piece that really spoke of their style there was the hall table which was an elegant walnut piece, but of course, he could not tell if that had come with house or was something that they had acquired. He had not enquired either as he had noticed that it was now covered with letters they had received but not received during their absence.

Well he was in her room now, that should give him some indication. Lex looked around, it was hard to make anything out really under all of the boxes – there were far more there than there had been in the apartment and Lex had to conclude that a large number of them have been in the loft or the basement.

She didn't have much furniture actually. Chloe's room was the second largest bedroom in the house, with a walk in wardrobe which led on to her own en suite. More to the point, it had its own office attached, so there was hardly anything in her actual bedroom except for her bed which was one almost as large as the ones at the mansion. It was clear that Chloe liked her space.

Still, a bed was not necessarily a good indication. Now, a desk, there was a far better clue as to her style. He made his way into the office and looked at her desk.

"Still sneaking around Luthor?" He heard a voice behind him.

Lex whirled around to see Chloe grinning at him from the doorway.

"Just looking at your desk", he replied honestly.

"It is great, isn't it?" She beamed as she bounced over to it and stroked it affectionately. We couldn't find a good one so Dad made me this one. It was a bit big for my last – well, last before we moved here for the first time – bedroom, but when we got here Dad said that I had enough space to have this one here", she indicated to its present position under the large window, "and another smaller one over here", she pointed to the side where there was another window. The wall behind them was completely a bookcase.

"I see", Lex nodded.

"That way I have one for work and one of general", Chloe smiled, clearly delighted to be reunited with her beloved desk.

Lex studied it carefully, it was large certainly but other than that he could not really see the appeal. It was as big as four doors put together but appeared to be made out of the plywood and had then been painted with a cartoon globe with fake postcards from Chloe to her Dad stuck all over it, saying things like "Ciao Babbo! Just brought the Berlusconi administration to its knees with a scathing editorial. Weather's hot, as are the coffee, pizza and the men. Wish you were here … but not that much because you would cramp my style. Love Chloe". Then it had been laminated so that it would not be damaged.

He looked underneath but couldn't see anything else.

"Draws are on the other side", Chloe pointed to the back wall. In the centre of her wall of bookcase, there were too columns of drawers.

"Practical".

"Extremely".

"No wall of weird?" He asked.

"No, I did have a servant all lined up to come and put it up for me but he is wasting time nosing around", she smiled to show him that she was joking.

"Good help is hard to find".

"Tell me about it".

"The trick is not to pay them by the hour".

"Ah, I will remember that when serving up the lasagne", Chloe said.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Just start unloading stuff, books mostly", Chloe suggested as she looked around at the mess. "I need to get started on my closet".

"No problem".

Chloe walked to the door where she paused and said, "Thanks Lex".

"For what?" He tried to be dismissive, he thought of something else to add but he stopped himself. He didn't want to be vulnerable in front of her, but maybe if he wanted her to trust him and be opened with him, he had better start by setting the example. He girded himself. "This is what friends do".

She gave a nod and left to battle with her clothes. She would never know how much that nod had meant to him. Determined to prove himself a good friend Lex got to work on the books, making a mental note of everything she owned and noticing that they were all categorised. He liked that obsessive tendency.

He was rather impressed that by the time that he had finished, her books filled all of the space. He then looked around for something else to do, he set her computer up on the desk – although didn't turn it on, he was learning about privacy – and realised why it was so important to Gabe that Chloe had a large desk, she was not too near to the screen. He moved her chair into place and found her knickknacks and put them on her desk before emptying the rest of the boxes marked drawers into their rightful place.

Only when there was nothing left did he make his way back into the bedroom, he had wanted to leave it perfectly for her so that the next time she wanted to write a story she could just go in there and get down to it. He knew that adversity would not stop her doing something, but he didn't want her to suffer if he could possibly help it.

When he went back into the other room he noticed that Chloe was nowhere to be seen. She did not seem to have done anything in the room, he popped his head into the closet and saw her sitting on the floor looking into her bag intently, in between rows of perfectly ordered clothes and shoes. She had more clothes than Lex had realised.

"What are you doing?" He asked as he walked into the small room casually.

Chloe jumped and he swore that he had seen a flash of panic in her eyes as she shoved whatever it was she had been looking at back into her bag.

Lex was at her side in a second, wrestling the bag out of her grasp. "What is it Chloe?"

"It's nothing", she tried to explain but Lex was already going through her bag.

"Lex, what do you think that you are going? Didn't we already have a talk about going through other people's stuff?" She huffed, trying to get her bag back.

"Yes, but you are hiding something from me. Is it about the plan tonight?" He demanded.

"What? No. I thought that you were my Dad", she said, as if that explained everything.

"What? What would you be hiding from Gabe?" Lex questioned, although of course the box from earlier would probably have been worth hiding from Gabe.

Chloe sighed, seeing that he was not going to drop this. "Fine", she pulled a different, much smaller box out of her bag, opened it, pulled a bundle of letters out of it and handed them over to him. "That is what I was hiding from him. They are letters from my Mom, I don't show them to him because I don't want him to think that I miss her or that he is not enough for me".

Lex looked at her in confusion, the letters in his hand certainly said that they were from Moira Sullivan but she had reverted to her maiden name and Lex knew well that she had never sent anything to Chloe.

"They are the most beautiful letters that I have ever received, they remind me what love truly is and of who I want to be. The kind of person, the kind of woman I would like to be seen as one day", Chloe explained.

Lex felt sick. He knew that these couldn't have come from Moira; the only explanation was that Gabe had written them, not wanting Chloe to be upset. He didn't know what to do.

"They talk about the places she has been, the things that she has seen. She even explained to me why she left, that it wasn't because she didn't love me but because she felt like she could not be a mother until she found herself and that that is what she is doing travelling around the world and travelling as much as she is, she cannot visit", Chloe explained.

Lex gulped. Gabe really had covered all of the bases. It was sweet in a twisted way – which was a way that Lex could understand. Gabe had been so desperate for his daughter not to be hurt or realise what a bitch her mother was, he had essentially created a new one for her.

"They remind you of what love is?" He checked, feeling his heart break. She would be hurt if she ever found out the truth, he couldn't do that to her, but he couldn't lie either when it was obvious that they could not, in fact, be from her mother.

"Yes", Chloe smiled, "she really is an amazing woman".

"Yeah, really fucking amazing", Lex muttered out loud, accidently. Chloe gave him a strange, unreadable look.

"What is really amazing about her is the fact that she has managed to write to me from all over the world and be so sweet and caring when you and I both know that she lives in Granville", Chloe said as if it were nothing.

Lex shook his head, "You always knew?"

"Of course. I remember my mother Lex, I know that my Dad thinks that I don't, but I do. The sad thing is that once I got over the shock, I wasn't even sad that she was gone. I was just worried that my Dad might go too and then …"

"What?" Lex questioned gently.

Chloe looked down at her hands which were wringing together in her lap, she wasn't sure how they had got onto this topic or why she was confiding in him but as she looked back up at him she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she could trust him.

"I was worried because my Dad went through much being married to her and during the divorce – he never says anything but I know that it was a living nightmare for him. He did it all for me, and I worry that I won't be good enough to make what he went through worth it. I worry that there is too much of my mother in me, that I won't be able to fight it".

Lex sighed, now it made sense: the box, the yelling, everything.

He cupped her face, "Chloe, you are the most infuriating person I have ever met. You let your curiosity get the better of you time and time again; you have no concept of where the line is. You get angry over things that have no importance at all. You have almost too much spunk. You won't accept help from anyone. You try to do everything yourself even when it means that you end up run down. You are beyond stubborn and worst of all when you see someone in trouble you go in without thinking about your own safety. Most of which proves that you are not your mother. You are incapable of turning your back on anyone, least of all your own flesh and blood".

"Chloe, Lex, dinner's ready!"

"Do you think that my Dad told Clark to call earlier?" Chloe wondered she watched Lex climb to his feet and offer his hand to her.

She regarded it for a second before accepting it and getting to her feet.

"I wouldn't put it passed him".


	11. Chapter 11

**Part Eleven**

The sun was just rising as Lex carried Chloe into his office and laid her down on the settee next to the fire.

"This really isn't necessary Lex, I am absolutely fine", Chloe protested as he hit the intercom and demanded breakfast before sitting at the bottom of the sofa.

"Considering you risked your life for me, I think that this is the least I can do", Lex said, slipping her shoes off. It was unfortunate that her disguise had necessitated stilettos, although the effect had been rather impressive.

"Lex we have been over this before", Chloe tried to pull her foot away from him.

"Yes, and I have taken on board many of your suggestions. You will notice that didn't just say 'Well tough, this is how it is going to be'. Now if that isn't meeting you half way, I don't know what is", Lex smiled, still holding on her hurt foot gently.

"Good point, that is a lot of progress for two days", Chloe returned his smile.

"So, are you going to make an effort as well? Are you going to let someone else try to help you for once without putting up a fight?" He asked, caressing the sole of her foot.

"I don't know, going down without a fight doesn't sit well with me, you should know that", Chloe teased him, trying to ignore the tingles that his fingers were sending up across her skin.

"Well, if that is the case, I may be forced to tickle you", he threatened, lowering his voice to a menacing level.

It was on the tip of her tongue to declare that he wouldn't dare, but the look in his eyes said that he clearly would, and so instead she opted for, "How about just a token resistance then?" Her eyes sparkling with humour.

"Your token resistance has been noted", Lex held her ankle and gently rolled it in his hand, checking for breaks.

"I told you that it is alright, I just tripped nothing more. I don't even think that it is …" she broke off as she gasped, "twisted".

Lex looked down at her ankle intently, attempting to hide his smirk. Once he had his face under control he repeated the manoeuvre, this time ready for her reaction so he could look up in feigned concern, "Hurt?"

Chloe shook her head. "I told you, I just pulled it, if even that. This is not necessary and you certainly didn't have to carry me all of the way from the helicopter. I am surprised that you managed it".

Lex looked up at her offended.

"I just meant that it is a long way, not that you are weak. I doubt that even Clark could manage", she broke off with another gasp as Lex began to rub the sole of her foot.

He took umbrage at the idea that the farm boy might be able to do something that he could not; he would enjoy proving the contrary to her.

"I am surprised that you didn't hurt your back", Chloe continued, feeling that she needed to keep up conversation even if it was about nothing in particular, anything that to keep up the pretence that Lex's skilled ministrations were having no impact on her.

"I didn't hurt my back the other night, did I?" Lex asked as rubbed his way up her ankle. She had been correct, her ankle wasn't broken, sprained or even twisted, just pulled and tense but if he admitted that then he would give up his excuse to keep touching her. Besides, she was so determined not to let him see that she was affected by him, he was determined to make her gasp as she had before, maybe even moan.

"The other night? What are you talking about?" Chloe wondered, shifting slightly.

"I am talking about when I carried up in from the helicopter to the guest bedroom", Lex said looking amused. Had she really not figured out what had happened? Judging by the look of shock on her face, the answer was no.

"I didn't know that you had done that", Chloe admitted. "You could have just nudged me awake, I would have gone home", she added uncomfortably.

"I could have but you looked so peaceful and I didn't think that you had been sleeping much. Besides, I knew that there would be no problem waiting until the morning to talk", his hands travelled upwards to massage her calve.

"Or at least it could have waited, if you hadn't left", he squeezed her calve, "Why did you leave? How did you think that you got there to start with?"

Chloe did almost moan but she bit her lip, she saw Lex's smirk and knew that he was well aware of his effect. She couldn't pull away or she would look weak, instead she tried to focus on his questions.

"I left because I felt uncomfortable and I wasn't sure what I was doing there. I didn't remember waking up", she didn't add anything about her floating teddy bear dream which she had now worked out was him, "but I assumed that that was the only way that I could have got in. I thought that I was imposing".

She averted her eyes from him, "I was not sure that you would have really wanted me here", she added in a smaller voice.

Lex's jaw tightened. He did not want Chloe's welcome in his home to ever be doubted, but he supposed that he could not blame her after everything they had been through that summer and how he had acted afterwards. He thought for a moment, she had to have worked it out by now didn't she? She was so smart, there was no way that she could miss it, but then again she hadn't worked out how she had got in bed either.

"Chloe", she started on her other foot. He wanted to say, "You know that I care about you, right?" But couldn't quite manage it, he paid more attention to the task, quite literally, at hand, and opted for saying, "you know that you are always welcome here, don't you?"

"Yeah, I had worked that out", she smiled, touched that he had said that. She knew that it took a lot to extract those words from him. For a moment she felt so connected to him and all warm and mushy. Then his hands slipped over her ankle and she remembered that this was Lex Luthor – even if he was very sweet sometimes.

Unable to stop herself any longer she let out a sigh of contentment. "And I hope that you know Lex", he looked up and she let him hang for a moment. She brushed her hand gently over his cheek, "That if the tycoon thing doesn't work out you could make a living as a masseur".

Lex guffawed. "I'll have to remember that".

"Well it might be good to remember if LuthorCorp stock takes a plummet after my article", Chloe joked, noticing that Lex was still working on her sore leg. He really was very good.

"Write what you like, for once I have nothing to be ashamed of", Lex shrugged.

"Very true, you were magnificent", Chloe commented. "Although I have to say that I didn't think that things would end like this last night, did you?" She asked as she reached into her bag for something.

"No, I can't say that I did", Lex admitted, curious as to what she was looking for.

Chloe led Lex down into the dining room, smiling slightly at the idea that Lex Luthor was not only in her house and staying to dinner, but almost seemed a little like a boy who was on his best behaviour. Then she wondered whether he had been invited to someone's home for dinner – not in a business sense – since he was, in fact, a little boy. She remembered how much he had longed to be part of the Kent family, she actually felt bad that she had never invited him before, or at least told Clark to invite him over for tea.

Lex looked around the room. Even now that the curtains were drawn the room was still light and airy. There were still boxes scattered around but the table was set and seemed to be a good piece of furniture, also walnut - Lex suspected that this was something that the Sullivans had brought for themselves as it seemed to match the table in the hallway.

"Looks like Dad already brought everything in", Chloe said, grabbing a roll from the plate in the middle of the table. "Oh, still warm", she moaned closing her eyes.

'Oh God", Lex groaned in that back of his throat. Chloe's head had fallen back slightly and he could trace the line of her neck down to her chest.

"Want a taste?"

"Pardon?" Lex blinked at her, certain that he must have misheard her.

"Do you want a taste?" She repeated her question, holding half of the bun out to him.

"Um, no thank-you. I can wait", Lex declined, running his hand over his smooth head.

"Well I can't, I'm starving", Chloe munched her roll. "Ended up sleeping through lunch", she said before realising what she had revealed, "Don't tell Dad".

"I won't, this time", Lex said, giving her a dark look.

Chloe pulled a face at him as she finished her bread and reached for another one.

"Any way I can help?" Lex asked. He had food brought to him every day without feeling any guilt, he paid people good money to wait on him, but he didn't feel right leaving it all up to Gabe.

She shook her head in the negative, her mouth too full to reply any other way. She swallowed a big portion and then said, "There's only the lasagne to go and Dad is on that. Nothing left to do, but eat", she ripped off another piece and popped it into her mouth.

"Yes, but you could have waited a few seconds trouble", Gabe said as he entered the room with the main dish.

"Hungry", Chloe announced between mouthfuls.

"Well then we had better eat", Gabe set his handiwork down and seating himself at the head of the table.

Lex pulled out the chair nearest to him and waited for Chloe to sit in it. With a "Thank-you kind Sir", she did. Lex then took his own seat, watching as Chloe bowed her head expectantly. A little confused he looked over to Gabe who said, "As the guest, would you do the honours Lex?"

"Honours?" He really hated being uncertain of what was happening around him. He could have sworn that he saw Chloe's shoulders shaking with silent mirth.

"I mean, would you care to say the grace?" Gabe explained kindly.

"Oh, um thank-you but I am not sure …"

"Go on", Chloe encouraged.

"Okay. Um", he thought back to prep school, they had always prayed there before eating. He could never remember which one was the Catholic and which was Protestant version of the prayer. Hoping that he had remembered the right one and was not about to offend the Sullivans he crossed himself and said, "Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen."

"Amen", they repeated and then traded slightly amused looks. Lex assumed that he had got the wrong one but no one seemed to mind.

"This smells amazing", Chloe said as her Dad began slice large portions of the lasagne and serve his daughter and guest.

"It does", Lex agreed, almost salivating as his plate was handed to him piled high with lasagne, salad and several rolls. "Where did you get it from? This looks better than what I get at the mansion".

"I made it", Gabe said, as if it were nothing.

At Lex's shocked look Chloe explained, "One day I told him that I fancied a brownie so he went immediately to the grocery store, brought a cook book and all of the ingredients and learnt how to make them. He had been cooking ever since".

"The next week she said that she quite fancied a plane", Gabe laughed at the memory.

"You tried your best", Chloe said as she cut up her lasagne.

"He didn't really? You didn't really try to build her a full plane, did you?" Lex asked in amazement. The idea boggled the mind but he had learnt that there were very few things that Gabe wouldn't do for his daughter. And he was sure that building a plane wouldn't have been beyond Gabe's intellectual capabilities, only his financial ones.

"No not really", Gabe laughed and pointed to a box down by Lex's foot. "Third one from the top".

Lex lifted the box onto the chair next to him so that he could riffle through it with greater ease. The first photo was of Chloe as a toddler being fed, by a hand that must have been Gabe's, with what looked like apple sauce smeared around her grinning mouth. The second was of her a little older pretending to fly in a red cape, being held up by her Dad. The third one was of Chloe sitting in a box with wings, painted to look like an airplane. She could only have been four then, he realised with a pang that the brownie incident must have been only a few weeks after her mother left. Well, Gabe had certainly stepped up. As he went to put that photo back he noticed a collage of photos beneath it.

"What's this?" He asked picking it up and handing it to Gabe.

"Ah, this is one of my favourites", Gabe smiled proudly down at it.

Lex ate some of his food and waited for the story that would no doubt accompany of the picture; he did not wait in vain.

"We went to the park with Lois and her family one day. I was helping Chloe with her sandcastle …"

"He was getting in the way of me building my sandcastle by smearing me with sun block", Chloe helpfully elaborated.

"I was helping her build her sandcastle when a nasty little boy knocked it over and Chloe felt the need to express herself on the subject. Her Aunt was taking lots of pictures and Lois made it into a collage for my Christmas present one year", Gabe explained and handed it back to Lex.

Lex studied it. Chloe looked very happy in the first picture building her castle with her yellow bucket and red spade, he couldn't see any sign of Gabe in the pictures, Chloe was the focus. Then the next one had her looking directly into the camera with a disgruntled expression, all evidence of her sandcastle obliterated. The next seven photos told the story of Chloe's pursuit of the boy until her Dad caught up with her, at which point there was a lovely picture of the look of concerned adoration on Gabe's face as he held his baby … who was smacking the boy on the head with her spade. The final picture was of Chloe and two other girls (who Lex supposed were Lois and Lucy) with ice creams looks rather pleased with themselves.

"I see that I will have to remember not to get on the wrong side of Chloe", Lex smiled and replaced the photos before continuing with his meal. "Although come to think of it, I think that I have heard that story somewhere before".

"Oh, the plant is filled with stories of my girl", Gabe beamed. "You may not have heard the one about the day that JJ got knocked off his chair though …"

"He doesn't need to hear that one, Dad", Chloe moaned.

"Yes he does", her Dad answered her cheerfully, "it has everything: a conflict, drama, a compelling lead".

"You have heard enough of my stories, for today. I want to hear some of yours", Chloe addressed Lex.

"Oh, this should be good", Gabe looked over at Lex with considerable interest. Lex was just trying to think of a way to get out of this one when he noticed Chloe slipping more salad onto her father's plate and removing one of the rolls while he wasn't looking.

"I …" he trailed off.

"Yes, she does that when she thinks that I am not looking", Gabe told him, obviously working out what was confusing Lex. "But she should know that daddies see all!" He said in a scary monster voice.

Chloe ignored this last comment and said, "Yeah, I got the idea from the fairy that keeps putting meat on my plate".

"A fairy keeps putting meat on your plate?" Lex was certain that he had to have misheard that.

"Yes, it is the only explanation we can think of for how extra meat keeps getting onto her plate when she did not put it there, or when she put the meat that I originally put there back on the centre plate while my back was turned", Gabe said with a feigned innocent look.

"Sure it is", Chloe rolled her eyes, "now stop stalling", she prodded Lex with her foot under the table.

"Tell you what, tomorrow you can ask me whatever you like", Lex offered. The warm, fuzzy family feeling that he had been experiencing came to an end then as he realised that he was about to betray the man who had invited him to dinner. He didn't know how much Gabe knew, but that night he was going to take his daughter away and however hard he tried to protect her, it would not be as safe for her as being upstairs in her room asleep.

After dinner Gabe refused Lex's offer to help washing up and demanded that they all go and watch Friends – Chloe's favourite TV show that was about to come on. Apparently it was a tradition in the Sullivan household that every Friday after dinner, Chloe went upstairs to change into her pyjamas – because she put her washing in then – and then they watched Friends followed by the Simpsons. Lex had glanced at his watch and realised that they would have time, the wink that Chloe gave him as she left the room made him realise that she knew they had too. They didn't have to leave for another hour and a half and she clearly wanted to keep her father as calm as possible. It wouldn't do them any harm to try to relax either; nothing would be gained by going over the plan yet again.

Chloe came down a few minutes later in her robe and for a moment Lex thought that maybe she had decided that she could leave it to him, but then he saw the glint in her eye and knew that that would never happen. Chloe had a plan, and Lex spent most of the hour trying to work out what it was. In fact, he still hadn't worked it out by the end of the Simpsons when he got up saying, "Time I got going. Thank-you for having me and I look forward to working with you again, Gabe" and extended his hand to him.

"Same here and you are welcome here anytime", Gabe shook his hand.

Chloe smiled at Lex from across the room and waved.

"Well I had better get back to unpacking", Gabe said and started to walk Lex out. Then as if it were an afterthought turned to Chloe and said, "If you are planning on going upstairs take off your robe off to reveal your dress underneath, then climb out of the window when you think that I have gone to bed, I wouldn't recommend it. 1. I had the tree cut down as it was growing too close to the house. 2. We have an alarm system. 3. It is chilly out and you will need to take a coat".

"Dad?" Chloe's jaw dropped.

Gabe smiled almost sadly and walked over to her. He cupped her face in his hands, "Please don't lie to be baby. I know that you don't want to worry me, I don't like being worried either. If there were anything that I could do to stop you going then I would do it, but we both know that you are 17 now. What you do is your own decision and I know that you wouldn't be doing this if you weren't sure that you were helping people. Unfortunately I know that I cannot stand in your way, because if I do you will just do it anyway", he kissed her forehead.

"Promise me you'll be safe", he demanded as he hugged her fiercely.

"I promise Daddy", she hugged him back. "What we do tonight will help many people".

"Well then I suppose that there is only one question to be asked, what are we doing?"

"No", Lex replied honestly, "I did not that things would happen like they did last night, or that we would end up like this".


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: **Sorry about the stupid horizontal lines, I only just found out that this site has decided not to work properly and isn't allowing "~*~" divisions. I hope that this has not caused problems following previous chapters.

**Part Twelve**

"What are you looking for?" Lex asked Chloe was she went through her bag.

"My phone", Chloe said, as she finally laid her hands on it.

"Nice to know that my efforts are so appreciated", Lex paid more attention to the tops of her calves and the backs of her knees.

Chloe couldn't help but moan that time, she blushed as she realised what sound had escaped her and that Lex was smiling knowingly at her. Deciding that she was already sunk Chloe tried to make light of it, "You know, we didn't have to go through all of that last night, we could just have offered them a foot rub to turn themselves in".

* * *

"So you are sure you know what we are doing?" Chloe checked with Lex as they got out of the helicopter.

"Yes, Chloe. I helped come up with the plan", Lex said as he walked her inside the LuthorCorp building, trying his best not to sound exasperated. They had been over this at least one hundred times since during the flight, they both knew what they were doing.

"I know. But I don't want you to forget, it was hard enough to get Dad to stay at home and research I don't want you to blow our cover either", Chloe stopped walking and put her hand on his arm. When she was sure that she had his undivided attention she beseeched him, "Whatever happens, you have to follow the plan".

Lex swallowed, he knew what she meant. She meant that if anything went wrong he was to say that he knew nothing about her and leave her to her fate, that saving the girls was far more important than she was. In the grand scheme of things Lex knew that she was right, but he just couldn't accept it.

He should just tell her what she wanted to hear, there was no point in getting into another fight now when they needed to be united. It would hardly be the first time that he lied but as he looked down at her, he knew that he couldn't do it; she deserved the truth.

"You know that I can't promise you that", he sighed. "Chloe, if I had my way I would have you taken away from here right now, it is taking every ounce of strength that I have not to have the security team take you back to Smallville and lock you up safe and sound". He saw that she was about to balk at that, so he placed a finger on her lips.

"And as much as I hate to say it, the reason why I am not doing that has nothing to do with respecting your decisions or your right to make them, it is not even because I know that you are the only one who can ID the people when we get in there. It is because I know that if I did that you would never trust me again and that that could get your hurt later down the line", he removed his finger, brushing against her lips as he did so.

"Lex", Chloe breathed.

"We have all of the security possible; we have armed guards and a couple of marines. I know that nothing should be able to go wrong, but if it does then you have to know that I won't stick to the plan. You are my priority", Lex said with conviction.

Chloe wanted to kiss him more than she had ever wanted anything else in her life, but she supressed the need. She could not be as brave as he had just been and lay her emotions out before him. She needed more time, something she prayed that that she would get.

"I am not worth all of those other girls lives", Chloe tried to make him see. She was so scared that he would get hurt because he was too busy looking out for her.

"You are to me", Lex ran his hand down her arm.

"We are ready Mr Luthor", one of the security men announced as he walked over to them.

"Are you ready for this?"

"Yes".

* * *

"Brilliant plan Chloe", she muttered to herself as she wandered about the club in her stilettoes. The first part of the plan had gone off well enough. Lex had got into the club with her on his arm without any problems and judging by the number of faces she recognised dotted around the place, most if not all of the security had too.

As they had planned he then sent her off – with a discreet escort - to look around the club in general, and below stairs for Laura or anything else suspicious. Lex's men had done their jobs, the man she had incapacitated before had disappeared and been pumped for all of the information he had, which unfortunately had not been much. He had merely confirmed what they had already known.

The club was being used as a front for human trafficking. The traffickers had come up from the south a little over a year ago and were using the club as a cover. Plenty of business executives could come to the club to blow off some steam after a hard day in the board room, there was nothing wrong with that. And it wasn't unheard of for pretty girls to go home with them afterwards, the difference was that in this establishment they were brought. There were a couple of girls who were kept around permanently (like Laura), but other than they got through about twenty-five girls per night.

Chloe's first thought when she had uncovered the club was to give the information directly to the police and write a story on it, but as Lex had pointed out, that wouldn't be enough. Even if the police force could be trusted there would be a delay and in that time the bosses would have left and set up somewhere else, they would only be left with the minions. They had to work out who was the brains of the operation.

They had been through everyone they knew was involved in some way but each time came to the same conclusion, it couldn't be one of them. They were all dirty, but each one had been absent at one of the big meetings that Chloe had found out about. Chloe had wondered if it could have been Lionel, but in one of the conversations she had heard – on the phones she had bugged – had referred to the man himself being in residence when she knew that Lionel was in prison. There was someone that they were missing.

Tonight would be business as normal, they had to find Laura, she was the only one who could tell them who the true boss was. Chloe had not even bothered to ask before, she had only actually had face to face contact with the woman once and then she had clearly been so terrified that Chloe had not wanted to scare her off completely. Besides, Chloe had figured that she would be able to find out who was behind without too much trouble.

It would be different now, she could explain that the place was surrounded and that they just needed to know who the boss was. It would be less than thirty seconds after finding out who they were looking for and it all being over. Chloe was confident that she would be able to get the information out of Laura, the only problem was that she couldn't find her.

She had been around the club four times already and had yet to see Laura, she had spoken to a few of the other girls Laura had described to her, they had seen Laura earlier but said that she had disappeared a few minutes before Lex had entered. The girls had been no more forthcoming than that, just shooting looks towards the men who were lurking near Chloe.

Chloe checked her watch, they had already been there two hours. It was so frustrating; she looked over at Lex chatting away with the men. One of the men there was responsible and she couldn't do anything about it. She was also starting to get scared that possibly something had happened to Laura.

"No, you can't think like that", Chloe told herself as she hovered by the bar.

"Talking to yourself, that is never a good sign", a familiar voice floated over to her.

"Jimmy", she smiled over at the barman.

"It's Timmy actually", he said with a laugh.

"Oh really? Sorry I must have misheard last time", Chloe apologised, while thinking, "Either that or the author forgot that she had already included Jimmy in the story before putting him in as my ex-boyfriend and wanted to get out of it very quickly by changing this one's name. :)"

"Tell me you at least brought a better fake ID this time", he gave her a winning smile.

She gave him a mock scowl for remembering before saying, "I don't need one anymore. I am here with Lex".

"Luthor, impressive. I have to admit that I didn't think that I nice girl like you would be able to keep his interest for long".

"What? You don't think that I can keep a man's attention?" She asked with a coy smile, it wouldn't be the first time she had flirted information out of someone.

"I am sure that you can, Lex just doesn't seem like your type", **T**immy grinned back.

"Well, maybe I am tired of always being seen as the good girl, the best friend", she shrugged, "Maybe I like being with him".

"Just make sure you know what you are getting into", the bartender advised her.

"I do".

"Good, because men like him aren't faithful", he said nodding over to the group of men, a girl was now sitting on Lex's lap.

"Bastard", Chloe muttered.

Timmy got a glass out and filled it with lemonade, "Here, you look like you could use this".

"Thanks", Chloe took it and sipped it. An idea occurred to her. "Look you seem like a really nice guy and you are in the perfect position to see everything, I don't suppose that you could help me".

He looked at her oddly for a minute before saying, "If I can".

"I heard of this girl here, called … Lara, I think. Anyway, when I was in the bathroom earlier I heard some of the other girls talking. They said that she would be sure to take Luthor from the, and I quote, 'dumpy blonde girl'. Do you know which one she is?" Chloe asked, shaking the tree gently and waiting to see what would fly out.

Timmy stared at her intently for several seconds. "Is he really that important to you?"

"Yes", Chloe answered without thinking.

"You mean Laura, and she left earlier. If you like I can take you to her", he offered.

Chloe smiled at him sweetly, even as her stomach twisted itself into knots. How could she have been so blind? He was the one person that no one would ever pay attention to. She didn't know how she knew it, but she knew that he was the person behind it all. That was why when they had researched all of the other people, they had worked out that none of them could be the absolute boss.

She mentally reviewed all of the notes they had complied, it fit. He had been present at every meeting. He oversaw everything. He could move around the club without anyone batting an eyelid. Every time the girls went over to the bar, they got their orders from him.

"Sure, that would be great", she lied enthusiastically as she ferretted around in her bag as if she were trying to find her purse.

"It's on the house", he smiled at her.

Finally her fingers closed around her phone and before she could lose her nerve, took a photo of his face – she knew that she wouldn't be able to do so once security got their hands on him. Then she shouted, "Now, it's the barman".

Timmy stared at her in confusion and for a second she doubted, maybe they hadn't worked this out as well as they had thought. Then, it happened. The power went out in the VIP section, there was the sound of gun shots and smashing glass. When the power returned a few seconds later Chloe realised that the operation had been bigger than even she had realised.

Over half of the people in the club that night were security. There were two enormous men either side of her holding large weapons and Lex was running towards her, "Are you alright?" He demanded, inspecting every inch of her for some sign of damage.

"Fine", she said a little bewildered. The place was crawling with what looked like CO19 operatives pulling people out of the bar and holding others on the floor with guns to their heads. Not to mention the others who were in civilian clothes but also armed.

"How many people here work for you?" She wondered.

"Everyone except the traffickers, the girls and you", he answered honestly. "Did you find Laura? Who is the boss?" He had not been close enough to catch the end of her sentence earlier.

"It's him. It's Jimmy the barman", Chloe said looking over at the man who was already rather bloodied and being hauled off.

"Did you find Laura?" Lex asked, trying to resist the urge to hug her. He had been sick with nerves for the last two hours – although of course he had not shown it. This caring for people really made you weak, no wonder he had avoided it for so long.

"No, not yet. Some of the other girls said that she had been taken somewhere a few minutes before you arrived, Timmy said that he would take me to her when I shouted. Maybe I should have waited, maybe he would have …"

"No", Lex shook her by the shoulders gently, "you did the right thing".

"Don't worry ma'am", a man in uniform came over to them, "We will get the information out of him and all of the women already here will be looked after. As long as you are sure that we got the ring leader".

"I'm sure".

* * *

Chloe allowed herself to be escorted back to the limo with ill grace. She knew that things were being taken care of but she had given her word to Laura that she would protect her and didn't feel right leaving until she was sure that she was alright. Apparently everyone who worked at the club had been accounted for and Lex had assured her darkly that they would get the information they needed out of them, but Chloe needed to go for them to do that. There was a difference between her guessing the tactics that his men would be using and seeing them do it first-hand.

She knew that her skills would be better used on working on the article but it still didn't sit well with her. With one more backwards glance at the club she was about to slip into the limo when she saw Lex walking over to her.

"Have you found her?" She demanded.

"Sorry", he shook his head, "no, they haven't found her yet but my men are going to continue working on them through the night".

Chloe nodded, trying to hide her disappointment. This wasn't Lex's fault, he had done everything he could.

"Chloe, I promise you, we will find her".

She could hear the earnestness in his voice and tried to muster a small smile for him, as she said, "I know".

"I know that you don't want to leave, but there is nothing more that we can do here for the moment", he rubbed her arm. "I want to get you back now so you can start on your story, and I will feel better once I know you are safe back in Smallville". He planned on taking her home and then returning.

"If there is any new development I will let you know", he added.

"Okay", she said, knowing that arguing would get her nowhere. "I just feel so terrible; I think that someone must have taken her. If only I had worked out that it was Timmy before …"

"Don't do this to yourself", Lex ordered sharply. He gripped her shoulders and forced her to look him in the eye, "You couldn't have worked it out any more quickly. No one else would have worked it out at all. We will find her and because of what you did here tonight they are not going to hurt anyone else".

"Lex", she started, it was on the tip of her tongue to tell him that she loved him but then she felt uncomfortable. This was not the time, and it certainly wasn't the place so she asked the question she had been formulating ever since he had told her that she had to leave. "Could we stay in Metropolis for tonight? I want to be close by if they do find anything".

He smiled. They had certainly come a long way from that morning when she had not even known if she was welcome in his house and he had not in truth expected her to agree to going back to Smallville before they had found Laura, her being willing to let him move her off the site to his penthouse was a success as far as he was concerned.

"Sure. We can call your Dad from the car", he offered.

Chloe had actually already called her Dad to say that she was alright but she would again to say that they were staying a little longer in the city.

"Thank-you Lex", she said as he opened the car door for her, although they knew that it was for more than his gentlemanly upbringing.

Lex nodded to his security to say that one of them should get in the front with his chauffeur and the rest follow in the other car. That was probably a mistake.

He slipped into the car after Chloe and closed the door without thinking.

"Don't move", a voice growled at them.

"Damn it", Lex swore under his breath as he heard the doors lock automatically and realised that the security were all on the outside of the vehicle.

He looked over to the other side of the limo where he saw his chauffeur sat with a gun pointing straight at Chloe and a young woman who couldn't have been more than Chloe's age next to him. For a second it occurred to him that maybe she was in on it and had been all of the time, but when he looked more closely at her he could see that her look of calm was entirely feigned. She was terrified.

"Laura, are you alright?" Chloe asked the trembling girl, doing a remarkable job of sounding unconcerned by the situation in which they had found themselves.

"Yes, I'm fine", Laura replied quietly, afraid that any loud noise would make the man shoot.

"We have people looking for you, we hadn't given up", Chloe assured her. If they were going to die there, it wasn't going to be with that poor girl believing that no one cared.

"I know, I heard", she gave a weak smile.

"How sweet", the chauffeur cackled.

"Benson", Lex said calmly, holding up his hands, "I don't know what you are getting out of this, but whatever it is it isn't worth killing innocent people".

"You are innocent are you?" He cackled.

"No, but they are", Lex continued. "Whatever my father is paying you, I will double it, just let them go".

"Innocent? They are whores, and she", he pointed the gun at Chloe's head, "helped put Lionel in jail".

"Don't speak about her like that", Lex's voice grew dangerous, fear for Chloe's life wrestling with his desire to try to beat the man in front of him to a pulp.

"I'll speak about her as fucking well please", he hit Lex across the face with the butt of the gun. He had had enough of the Luthor scion ordering him around on a daily basis, he was not going to allow it to happen when he was the one with the gun in his hand.

"Lex", Chloe shouted as she saw him lurch to the side.

"I'm fine", he said, sitting back up and wiping the blood from his lip. "I'm so sorry Chloe", he turned to her and cupped her face, "I didn't think that it would end like this".

"Well, if this is how it ends, I am not going out with any regrets", Chloe announced and before she could over think it, she kissed Lex Luthor hard on the mouth. She heard him grunt in surprise but was gratified by the way that his arms wrapped around her and he responded to her kiss. Their hands held each other as tightly as possible as their tongues explored each other's mouths determined to put everything into that one kiss, if that was all that they were to have.

Bang!

Chloe and Lex pulled apart and stared at the direction of the disturbance, each turning pale. The moment had come; they both knew that the bang hadn't been because of the fireworks they had just witnessed.

Lex steeled himself, expecting to see Laura's lifeless body oozing blood; he was rather surprised to see her laying across Benson whose aim had been thrown off, shooting just passed Lex's shoulder. Clearly he had been distracted enough by the performance Chloe and Lex had put on to knock his hand away at just the right moment.

"Open the doors", Lex ordered as he saw Benson trying to right himself and get hold of his gun, "And then get out of here". With that, he threw himself at his enemy just as Laura got out of the way.

He could hear the sounds of the girls getting the doors open and his security team finally gaining access.

"Mr Luthor, we are you safe?" One of them asked him as they opened the door nearest to him.

"Fine, take the gun", he indicated with his head to the pistol on the car floor, inches from the hand that Lex was restraining.

Once the gun was gone and he was at liberty, Lex proceeded to beat the man senseless. He would probably have killed him had not felt Chloe's hands clawing at his back, trying to pull him off.

Lex allowed himself to be pulled off and wiped the blood from his hands but found that there was too much of it. He hadn't realised when he had been hitting the man just how much damage he had done.

He turned to Chloe, ready to yell at her and tell her to get out and stay with the security like he had told her to but couldn't when he saw the tears trickling down her cheeks.

"Don't cry", he tried to brush the tears away but only succeeded in smearing her face with blood, he felt sick.

"Don't kill him, please", Chloe's voice broke.

"I won't", he promised pulling her into his arms, hating the way that his hands stained her but needing to comfort her. She had been through a lot that day and he was fairly certain that she had never born witness to such brutality before either.

"It is alright now, it is all over now", he repeated the words trying to comfort her but knowing that he could never manage it. He wished that he could sooth her the way she did him, just by letting him hold her.

"I know", she managed a watery smile. "And see, I told you that we would need these", she held up the pink fuzzy handcuffs that Jimmy had given her.

* * *

"Last night was certainly action packed, I will remember your suggestion for bribery for next time though", Lex said, as Chloe stared at her phone. She looked beautiful. Before heading back to Smallville Lex had taken her back to the Penthouse to get cleaned up, he could hardly take her home smeared with bloody – and had used the time that she was in the bathroom to call Gabe just to reaffirm that Chloe was safe and would be home the next morning.

He had also had one of his employees run out to Prada – demanding that the shop open immediately - and grab a selection of dresses that looked like they might be Chloe's size so that she would have something to change into. He doubted that she would ever be able to get her own dress clean again, so he owed her a new one.

The maid went and placed the new collection on the bed in his room and removed the one which she had taken off so she did not have much of a choice in the matter.

Chloe had merely given him a word of thanks when she had come out dressed in one of her new ones and although she had seemed a little put off by the fact that he had brought her something so expensive, she obviously not to want to start a fight right then. In truth, she had been a little distant since they had left the club, not that Lex could really blame her. He didn't feel quite up to facing that evening yet either.

"Either that or we could just have Laura deal with them. Who would have thought that she would have it in her?" Chloe joked.

"You", Lex said then, seeing her look up at him in confusion, he elaborated, "you believed in her".

"Yeah, well she still went through an extra day of hell because I didn't get wise to Timmy quickly enough", Chloe tried to shrug off Lex's comment. Before he could tell her once again that that had not been her fault, - that was what he had been telling her as they got out of the helicopter and she had been so distracted that she had slipped - she asked, "What will happen to them all?"

"We will help the girls however we can. We will find out who they really are and get them back home to their families and hope that with time and counselling they can build some sort of lives for themselves again. The people involved will be put into maximum security prisons for the rest of their lives, if they don't get the death sentence. Timmy, will go to trial very soon, there is no way that they will get bail although they still don't know who he was really", Lex explained, leaving out the part involving torture and threats.

"At least I got a photo of him that I can actually use", Chloe said, as she flicked through the photos on her phone, letting Lex know that she knew what he was leaving out.

"Can you send me a copy?" Lex asked, thinking that it might be useful at some point, the scars inflicted by now would never fully heal. He thought that Chloe probably hadn't really wrapped her head around just how nefarious some of the people he worked with really were.

"Sure", Chloe hit send.

Lex took out his own phone and looked at the photo. It was a good picture considering how poor the lighting had been and would help them work out who he was, you could even make out the number on the card sticking out of his top pocket. Fuck! Only certain people had those card ending in that number, no wonder they had been having so many problems find out the truth about this man.

That photo would not just put him away for life but help put away many other criminals, but it was far too dangerous for Chloe to have a copy of. It wasn't that he thought that anyone would come after her, he knew that that couldn't happen but she would work it out. She would get herself into more compromising situations. He couldn't let that happen. He would have to get her photo off her and delete it. He closed his eyes, she was going to hate him forever.

Last night, when she had kissed him he had felt the flames of hope being fanned inside him. He had been willing to take things slowly, not to broach the subject until later but now he knew that there was no hope for them. He had to act fast, destroy the photo and with it any chance for him to win Chloe.

He wondered how he was going to go about doing it when the door swung open without warning, breakfast didn't normally come in so informally.

"Clark", Chloe gasped, trying to look nonchalant. "What are you going here?" She was suddenly very aware of what she was wearing and just how close she was sitting to Lex, she shifted a little further away from him.

"I went over to your house and your father said that he thought that you were here, working on a story", Clark explained, "I was worried". He thought of adding "Because you have been acting strangely the last few days", but decided against it. If Lex wanted to think that it was because he didn't trust him, then that was just fine with him.

"Well there was no need to be", Chloe assured him.

Clark did not look convinced, instead he studied Chloe intently. It was not just strange that she was at the mansion at all, let alone at that time of day, she was also extremely elegant. She was dressed in what even Clark could tell was an extremely expensive black tailored dress which only reached her mid thighs. The top half of the dress looked formal but there was a band of sliver which clinched the dress in at the waist which indicated that it was meant to be worn at night more often than in the board room. Where had Chloe got the money for a dress like that? Also since when did Chloe wear sparkly, high healed stilettos to visit Lex?

Her face was always so expressive, maybe there he would find the answer to his questions. Clark felt his eyes grow hot as he stared at her sweet face, and had to look away for a moment to regain control of himself. Had she always been this beautiful?

Lex noticed Clark's reaction to Chloe and was torn between the desire to hit him and wondering what Chloe thought of the obvious attention. Judging by the cannery-who-had-got-the-cream smile she was wearing, she had too had noticed the attention and was enjoying it. And why shouldn't she? He tried to reason, she was young and attractive and tired of being ignored … that didn't stop him feeling jealous though.

"We were just about to start our interview", Lex announced. That would get rid of Clark and get Chloe's attention back on him, it would also give him the opportunity he needed to get the photo off her. He could have groaned as he realised that that would mean that she would be in Clark's arms before lunchtime, but it couldn't be helped. He had to protect her.

"I will stay and help".

It was on the tip of Lex's tongue to tell him to get out but then he thought of Chloe, there was a chance that she would leave now if he sent Clark away then he would never get the picture. Besides, if Clark was there then she would have to stay to do the interview even after the photo was gone. Anything that prolonged their last meeting would be worth it.

He noticed that she had taken out her phone ready to record.

"May I?" He asked and took it off her before she could protest. Had she not been distracted by Clark then she might have seen it coming, but she didn't.

Clark looked at him quizzically, "Got to check for a clean recording", Lex explained as he found and deleted the file.

He handed it back to Chloe with a look of triumph.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

"Thank-you for agreeing to do this interview, Mr Luthor", Chloe began with her sweetest smile. "You are known for never giving interviews, so this really means a lot".

"Please, call me Lex", he settled himself on the opposite settee from Clark and Chloe. "And it is my pleasure. You are quite right, I am normally considered quite a reticent man but I think that in your case I can make an exception".

Chloe raised an eyebrow.

"There are a lot of things that I should have said to you a long time ago", he explained, looking straight into her eyes.

"It's a shame that your last attempt at an interview was disrupted", Clark commented.

"Indeed", Lex smiled over at him. "Hopefully no one will get thrown through any windows this time", the smile appeared forced now.

"Well that depends on whether you will answer my questions directly".

Both of them men stared at Chloe, Clark in surprise, Lex in amusement.

"Well Chloe, you ask me a direct question and I will give you a direct answer. How is that for fair?" There was a challenge in his look.

"Very well, Lex. How do you respond to accusations that LuthorCorp is an evil conglomerate bent only on making money and without any regards for the world we live in, or its employees?"

Lex made a show of leaning back on the sofa and getting comfortable before saying, "In general I don't respond to accusations at all, I have the people who make them disappear", he left the threat hanging in the air. Chloe looked unimpressed while Clark bristled and appeared to be about to threaten Lex in return, so the billionaire continued, "But as you are a friend of my closest friend", he sneered, "I will make an exception".

"Your information appears to be out of date. The majority of the environmental problems which LuthorCorp has previously been accused of (although never officially) have been linked instead to meteor activity by a very talented local reporter", Lex smirked.

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Luthor".

He pretended to look confused, "You do not believe that Lana Lang is an excellent local reporter?"

Lex took a sip of his water to hide his smile as he watched Chloe battling with herself. She knew that he was trying to push her buttons and was trying to resist responding but it went against the grain.

"Excellent", she finally managed acidly.

"But surely you don't deny that many of the business strategies employed by your company have been unethical. You have underpaid for family businesses, fired good workers, and the employee based buyout was almost a complete disaster", Chloe challenged him.

"No, I don't deny any of those things. Almost everything that anyone ever does is unethical from someone's point of view. Just by being an American citizen you are considered a monster by many, but if you wish I will respond to your more specific criticisms", Lex maintained eye contact.

"I believe that I have always dealt fairly with people during buyouts, however there is always room for differing opinions on these matters. When someone has put their heart and soul into a business that their family has had for generations then the market value of that business or even five times that will never seem like adequate recompense - especially when the value of that property is evaluated by a hurt boy. If you are referring to the Ross factory, as I believe you are, you will find that a) LuthorCorp did technically pay more than the correct amount for it, and b) that my father was in charge of the company at the time".

"How convenient", Chloe muttered under her breath.

"May I continue?" There was a touch of steel, to his tone.

"Please".

"As for the policy of who is and is not kept employed, this is something my father and I have always disagreed upon. As you well know, when I first came to this town I refused to get rid of workers. I have always tried to work ethically where possible, this is something that has not changed although I will admit that sometimes there are greater pressures than someone outsides the business world can comprehend", seeing that she was about to interrupt, Lex held up a hand to her, "that is why I have appointed a new regional head of LuthorCorp Smallville, Mr Sullivan who I assure you is already coming up with ways to safe guard our employee's interests whilst making the plant profitable and green. Does that answer your question?"

"Yes", Chloe replied tersely.

"Your Dad got his job back and got promoted?" Clark asked, sounded thrilled.

"Yes, yesterday", Chloe smiled over at him.

"That's great. Why didn't you tell me sooner? We have to celebrate?" Clark hugged her.

"Yeah, it is. I didn't have the chance yesterday, and yes we should definitely celebrate later", Chloe returned his hug enthusiastically, noting Lex's reaction out of the corner of her eye. He looked like he would like to rip her and Clark apart.

She wanted to hurt him the way that he had hurt her, she thought about inviting Clark to dinner right there in front of Lex, but she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"We could go to the Talon", Chloe suggested.

"Yes, I am sure that Lana would love that. It will give you all the chance to celebrate together", Lex put in, determined that she shouldn't enjoy the hug or get any ideas about ending up with Clark. Chloe shot daggers at him, but he preferred that to her fawning all over Clark.

"Yeah, that would be great", Clark enthused and then realising that Lex was there, have given Chloe's father a good job, and was doing an interview for Chloe. So, being a Kent he had to extend the invitation, "You can come to, if you want Lex".

Lex wanted to scoff that he did own the place, but this was the first olive branch that he had been offered from Clark in a long time and wasn't about to ruin it, besides it would give him the chance to be near Chloe.

"I wouldn't miss it for the world", Lex said smoothly. He could have sworn that he heard some most unladylike language coming from Chloe's direction, but when he looked over at her she looked composed and inquired, "As I have been waiting for an answer for almost three years, are there any more secrete construction projects going on at LuthorCorp like level 3?"

"If there were I have no doubt that you would have found them by now. You do seem to have a knack for getting yourself into trouble … and into top security buildings after all", he said in his most charming voice.

Chloe bristled and refused to look over at Clark to see how horrified he was. "Well when you know that people are hiding the truth from you, sometimes you have to look hard for it".

"Sometimes people hide things for a reason", Lex suggested. That was not an argument that he would have made this time last year.

"Yes, because they don't want to be caught doing something wrong", Chloe threw back.

"Or because they are trying to protect suborn blonde –"

"Hey", Clark interrupted. He didn't quite understand what was going on, but he knew that that line of conversation wasn't going to end well.

"You're quite right Clark", Chloe placed her hand on his arm. She was pleased to see Lex's entire body tense.

"My next question was about your obsessions, Mr. Luthor", she said with wide eyes.

"Lex", he ground out again.

"Obsessions?" Clark repeated, looking a little worried.

"Yes, obsessions. Everyone has them, you know. Those things, activities or sometimes even people who just get into your head. I know that I have had that experience hunting down a story. These obsessions make you lose all sense of proportion, sometimes even of right and wrong because they are all that you can think of until it destroys your entire world and you realise that it just wasn't worth it", she blinked innocently several times before turning her full attention to Lex, "What are yours?"

At this rate there would be nothing left of his teeth by the end of this interview, if he kept grinding them like this. He had no idea what her original questions would have been, although he was sure that they would not have been easy to answer either, he knew that this was just to punish him. She was hurt that he had deleted her picture and thereby showed – in Chloe land, at least – that he didn't trust or respect her and now she wanted to hurt him as much as possible before leaving him forever.

Unfortunately for Chloe, anything that she could dish out in anger was preferable to her indifference.

"Well, that is certainly a direct question. I suppose that a while ago I would have said that it was getting to the bottom of a car accident that I had and survived, but that hasn't been the case for almost a year now", he fixed Chloe with a look that made her squirm. "Since then, it has been a woman", he finished.

"Eight women so far this year, wasn't it?" Chloe asked, remembering her research.

"Been doing your homework, Miss Sullivan?" His smile was far too cocky.

"Always, I am a good girl, as I am frequently reminded".

"Well I suppose then that you could say that sex is my current obsession, if you wanted to be more commercial", Lex said offhandedly.

"Sex?" Chloe choked a little and Clark just looked shocked.

"Yes, I certainly find myself thinking about it a lot recently", he licked his lips. "Over there on the couch where you are sitting, up against the wall, on the rug in front of the fire, on my desk. I am fairly certain that I have imagined it in every position in this office", he said, pretending to think about it for a minute before fixing her with a look that made her feel as if he could see through her clothes. "What about you?"

"I cannot say that I have ever thought of you having sex", Chloe lied smoothly.

"Now, who is not being direct?" Clearly she had not been quite smooth enough.

Damn the arrogant bastard! Well she would show him. She didn't even bother to look over to see Clark turning bright red, she had temporarily forgotten all about him.

"Maybe you should think a less about quantity and position and a little more about quality and stamina", Chloe suggested trying to ignore how hot the room had suddenly become. The wall would probably have felt cool against her skin …

"Excuse me?"

"Well you have been married twice and you aren't all _that_ old. Surely there must be something wrong there. How do you think that you screwed those relationships up?" She cocked her head to one side, "Overbearing? Arrogance? Refused to think that they were capable of making their own decisions? Or could you just not keep them satisfied?"

Lex shot Chloe a piercing look and was pleased to see that she did look slightly uncomfortable and refused to look directly at him.

"If you are going to stoop so low as to ask me a question as personal as that with the intention of hurting me, then at least do me the courtesy of eye contact when I answer", his tone was low and dangerous. He knew that Chloe was angry with him, and had every right to be, but he did have limits of what he would allow.

Chloe looked up and was about to say, "Sorry", but the words died on her lips.

"I haven't had the easiest time with women, both of my marriages were errors from the very start. Both were interested in my money and position rather than me. That is true of every woman I have ever been with and I suppose that is why I feel like it is alright to treat them horribly, but recently I have begun to see that that is wrong. I guess that I always knew that it was but it suited me to ignore it", he appeared calm.

"What changed your mind?" Chloe couldn't help but ask.

Lex shrugged. "Since being in Smallville I have met people that I have to respect, even if I don't like them half of the time. But I learnt last year, when dealing with my father that I am inherently bad and will hurt anyone I get too close too. It is better to protect people you care about than to love them".

"That is such a load of rubbish and you know it!" Chloe erupted. For a moment she had felt as if her heart were about to break for him, until she remembered what she had been through because he had made that decision without even consulting her … if it was her he was talking about, which it might not have been.

"It isn't better, it is safer for you to sit here in your ivory tower, mansion, castle, or whatever you call this monstrosity, feeling sorry for yourself and saying that you are bad and that you had better not get close to people. You have destroyed every single relationship you built up here in Smallville and it wasn't because you weren't capable of continuing them, I know you Lex Luthor, you are capable of anything. It was because you realised that they made you vulnerable. You are a chicken not to mention a Neanderthal".

"A Neanderthal?" He questioned, in confusion. Chloe seemed to be able to flick between topics with startling ease. He had been focusing on her assessment of his fear and now she decided that he was a Neanderthal.

"Yes, …"

"Chloe, I don't think that this is an appropriate diversion. Maybe we should get back on track", Clark suggested, he had believed Lex's excuse and felt for him.

"Clark", she yelped in surprise. She was about to tell him to mind his own business when she decided that that wasn't the way to really get to Lex. "What would I do without you?" She gushed in a Lana-esc way that made her feel slightly sick … although that did not mean that she agreed with the way that Lex rolled his eyes, that was just unnecessary - she hadn't over done it that much! Just for that she wasn't going to let him off the hook as easily as she had been planning to.

"Yes, getting back to your relationships. You seem to have a rather complicated one with your father and women. Which would you like to discuss first? Your dysfunctional relationship with your father who you claim to love and have several times defended but who you paint as the villain of the piece with yourself as the innocent school boy when it suits you? Or your inability to keep a woman happy?"

"I wasn't aware that I had ever painted any such picture, but seeing as how you seem to have a little obsession of your own, I will have to take your word for it. I do not think that it is abnormal for a child to love their parent even if they do not have an entirely positive relationship with them, it is not as if he just abandoned me after all", the moment the words were out of his mouth he regretted them.

"Chloe", he started as he saw the tightening of her jaw. He observed Clark reach over and rub her back slightly. Lex would have given anything to be able to do the same, at the end of last year he had had that kind of relationship with her. He remembered how easy it had been for him to place his hand on her back last year to guide her around the courtroom, now he couldn't touch her. God, how he longed for yesterday when she had been in his arms, even if he had smeared her with blood.

He knew that he would only bring her pain, he had been right to stay away from her. She was better without him. He would do this interview and then he would disappear from her life, he wouldn't even go to her celebration later as he had been planning to.

Chloe realised what he was thinking and growled. She didn't want this wimpy Lex. He had once again interfered and proved that he couldn't be trusted, she wanted to argue with him and she couldn't do that if he was being like this.

"Don't be such a pussy", she thought and then, seeing the boys' expressions, realised that she must have said it out loud. Oh well, too late to take it back now.

Lex gave her an unreadable look, then said, "My relationship with my father is very complicated and one that I imagine psychiatrists would have a field day with, so maybe we should move on".

"Very well, we will move on to women", Chloe said. She did not intend to talk about his wives again, that had been too low even though she was angry. She had just wanted to hurt him as much as he had hurt her when he had shown that he did not trust her and that none of the feelings, that he had encouraged her to have, were reciprocated. He did not love her like she loved him, if he did, then he would never have deleted her picture.

"Are you rubbish in the sack. Is that why the flops?"

"Want to find out?" Lex asked getting to his feet and moving around the table towards her.

"Not right now, thanks", Chloe said, trying to keep her cool. She could not let him see that he was getting to her, or that she wanted to throw herself at him. She had to think of something that would stop him looking so infuriatingly handsome at her. Then it came to her.

"So you are really rich, huh?" She tried to make her eyes wide.

"Yes", Lex said, crossing his arms over his chest and staring down at her. He knew that look and wasn't about to fall for it, wherever she took this next, he would be ready for her.

"So", she lowered her voice so he had to bend down to hear her as if were a secret. He still wasn't quite close enough so he braced his hands either side of her, on the back of the settee, and lent down so that she could whisper in his ear.

He did not miss the slow, satisfied smile which spread across her lips. She loved being in control, well they would see how long that would last.

She licked her lips before whispering, "So have you ever tried a toupee". As she pulled away to smirk, "because I think that it would be a very good idea". Of course she didn't, if anything she thought that he would look very strange indeed with hair, she liked his smooth bald head.

Lex appeared unruffled as he sat back on his coffee table, his forearms resting on his legs. "You know that is the second time that you have tried that particular line of insult on me. I let it slide the first time as you were not yourself, but now it raises certain questions". He pretended to think.

"What questions?" Chloe leant in, eager to know in spite of herself.

This time it was Lex who whispered in her ear, "If you have ever been spanked, because it seems quite likely that you will be in the near future if you don't watch that pretty, extremely temping", he ran her thumb across her full lower lip, "mouth of yours".


	14. Chapter 14

**Part Fourteen**

Four hours ago Chloe Sullivan had bounced into The Talon, the image of the perfectly content High School Senior. She was young, beautiful, intelligent, she had got into College and had a full scholarship, things were going well at home and she had just finished an article that was going to give her career a kick start. She had her whole life ahead of her.

Now she was still sitting at her preferred table with her laptop open, but she couldn't seem to type anything. Well, that wasn't entirely true, she had spent the last four hours typing … and then deleting what she had typed. Well, that and drinking coffee. Writing the article itself had been nowhere near this hard. All she needed was a few simple lines that she could send to Lex and have done with him forever.

Once more she forced herself to concentrate and wrote, "Dear Lex", no he might misconstrue the dear. "Dear Mr Luthor", no, that sounded like she was being sarcastic, and she didn't want to call him dear whatever might follow it.

"Lex", yes that was an acceptable beginning.

"Please find attached a copy of the article I wrote about …" about what? Her investigation? She did not want to leave him out of it. Their mission? No, that might remind him of what they had done in the back of the car the night before. "What happened at your club?" That would do.

Now for the hard part, explaining why she was emailing him, she did not want to seem weak or as if she thought that the rich had the right to control everything.

"I have _chosen_ to give you an advanced copy of my article as I do not wish what happened to adversely effect you in any manner", she typed. Yes, that would do nicely, but could be misunderstood. "If there is anything herein that seems like it could cause problems for any member of your security team please have your secretary inform me of the fact and I will consider reversing _that part_".

Now she just had to end it, "Chloe Sullivan", attach the document and press send. Once it was done she felt better. She had always intended to let Lex see the article before publishing just in case it could somehow compromise something else he was working on. She had felt that she owed him that much. He should have trusted her to do the right thing rather than just deleting her information, she had not been planning on putting Timmy's image in her piece, that was going to be for a separate piece when she found out his true identity, but had Lex asked her not to, then she would have backed off.

She drained the last of her coffee and was glad that she had had only one class first thing that day. She was not sure that she could have survived an entire day of classes when she had so much on her mind, at least tomorrow was the weekend. She could go shopping now that they were well off, she had a list as long as her arm of things that she coveted, starting with the bread maker she had wanted to get her father for his last birthday but hadn't been able to afford. She could go to the gold club if she wanted. She would do both, she decided, anything to keep her mind off Lex.

It was with a sigh that Chloe opened up her word document. She knew that she would have to transcribe the rest of the interview now that she had no more excuses to hide behind. It was always best to do these things when they were still fresh in the mind and she was damned if she was going to lose the only interview with Lex Luthor just because she now hated him and hadn't done her best work in the interview.

After Clark had separated them again – luckily not having heard Lex's last threat – they had had another crack at the interview, only to be interrupted by the breakfast that Lex had ordered before being brought in.

As Chloe had had her first coffee of the day, she promised herself that she would limit herself to the sugary sweet questions normally reserved for interviews. She would not let him get to her, or give him a chance to make good on his threat. Normally she would have felt up to dealing with Lex but with a sore ankle and tight skirt she was not sure how well she would do or how long it would take for Clark to realise what was going on and come to her rescue.

The recording continued.

"Now for the more standard questions, unless you don't feel up to another round?" Chloe crossed her legs in a business-like manner.

"I can last just as long as you can", Lex assured her.

"Not tiring at your advanced age?" She queried. She wished that she had a notepad with her, that way she would have an excuse to avoid looking at him.

"On the contrary, I find our verbal judo rather exhilarating", he looked smug. "What are your 'more standard' questions? What is my favourite breakfast cereal?"

"No, I already know that", Chloe answered, without thinking.

"Really? Do enlighten me", Lex looked highly amused.

Chloe could have kicked herself, why had she let him know that she had researched him so thoroughly? She took a breath, it would even more embarrassing to admit that and then to get the answer wrong. "It varies". That should suffice as a nice dodge.

"Go on".

Damn it!

"Your father always insisted that you ate porridge, so that is what you ate for breakfast all of your youth both at home and school. Porridge with raisins and semi-skimmed milk, to be more exact. I am not sure why he was so determined that you ate porridge, whether it was because of the Scottish ties or because oats are good for you", she started.

He nodded his head. "But that doesn't answer what my favourite is".

"Ever since you have come to Smallville you eat Jordan's nutty muesli. Still has all of the goodness of oats, but isn't what your father ordered you to eat".

"Close, but …"

"You didn't let me finish".

"My apologies".

"_However_ during your college years you tried a variety of cereals, toasts, pop tarts etc. the ones with the least nutritional value were your favourites, in particular Captain Crunch".

"My goodness, you really did do your research. So you conclude that my favourite is …" He waited for her to fill in the blanks, and waited with glee to tell her that she was wrong.

"You don't like to eat in the morning, you like black coffee and that is it. You only eat at that time because it is what you are supposed to do. First to please your father, then to anger him by your choices, then just because it was the healthiest thing to do. "

"Impressive, although I am not sure how you got all of this information", Lex regretted that he wasn't going to be able to tell her that she was wrong, but couldn't help being impressed.

"Source confidentiality", she replied cheekily.

"Anything else to add?"

"You only like to eat early in the morning after working out - which you do when you can in the mornings, but more normally after work. You can tell when you haven't managed to get in a good work in a couple of days because your mood worsens", Chloe explained as if it were the most normal thing in the world to know these things.

"You notice when my mood worsens?" Lex asked.

Chloe did not deign to answer that. "When you have had chance to work out in the morning then you like muesli followed by an egg white omelette and you adore toast, it doesn't matter what is on it".

"I do like toast", he admitted. "But what questions you could possibly have left to ask me, I am not sure. You seem to know everything about me".

"No, not everything. I know facts and I can build up a picture from that and even guess what your favourites etc. might be but I don't really know what is going on inside your head", Chloe said.

"Are you sure that you want to?"

"Yes". She was annoyed at how earnest that came out sounding. She had just meant to make her point, not reveal anything about herself whilst doing so.

"Very well. Next question". This was a mistake, he shouldn't be letting her see anything about him, he had built up these walls for a reason. They were reinforced, no one had ever managed to tear them down, but this was the first time that anyone had ever just asked to be let in. He wondered why she even wanted to know more about him, would it really make her interview that much more interesting?

"Favourite p" she coughed uncontrollably as some coffee went down the wrong way.

"Chloe", Lex was on his feet in a second pouring her some orange juice from the tray set out on the coffee table and passing it over to her. Clark was patting her on the back and took the drink for her, after a few sips her equanimity was restored.

"Are you alright?" Lex checked.

"Yes", Chloe gasped.

Once she seemed to be breathing normally again, he asked, "Chloe, did you ask me what my favourite position was?"

"No", Chloe turned red. "I asked what your favourite place was. You know: country, city, sea side etc. You travel so much and always for business so it is hard to tell".

"Right", Lex said smirking. It wasn't clear whether it was because he didn't believe that was what she had really said, or whether he knew what she had said and just enjoyed her discomfort. "Nice to see that your spies don't tell you everything. I liked the suburbs, near enough the city for the amenities but far enough to have some fresh air and quiet."

"Right", Chloe nodded.

"What about you?"

She looked up in confusion; his question had caught her off guard. This wasn't how interviews were supposed to work but then she decided to answer him, she could not see any real reason not to do so. "I'm not sure, I have only really been here and Metropolis. I was beyond distraught when I first came here, but it grew on me".

"I know the feeling".

The look he gave her took her breath away. She forgot what she had been planning to ask him next. So she went for the incredibly boring one that she always read in teen magazines, "What and who would you take if you were stranded on a desert island? And why?"

"I was", Lex reminded her. She must have been flustered if she had forgotten that. He felt quite proud that he could have such an effect on her.

"Well, yes of course you were. And no one plans to get stranded, but …"

"But this is the question that everyone always asks. I suppose that I should be happy that it isn't one of the questions you came up with, I have a feeling that yours would be far more astute", he winked.

"I didn't ask you what your favourite position was, I did say place", Chloe protested.

"Sure you didn't", seeing her colour heighten even more, he took pity on her and said, "I would take Warrior Angel because he could build a shelter and get us off the island and a really beautiful woman … well I am sure that I don't have to go into the why for that one".

"No, although aren't you afraid that she might prefer Warrior Angel?" Chloe cheeked him.

"Good point", he grinned, "I will take an extra girl for him, Wonder Woman perhaps".

"And what things would you take?"

"Beautiful woman, secluded island … do you really need to ask?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No, I can imagine"

"I am sure you can", he said reminding her that he had seen her box. She went even redder. "But seeing as Clark here doesn't appear to be able to, I will supply: a bed, condoms and a nutella".

"A bed? How conservative of you", Chloe scoffed causing Lex to raise his eye brows at her before taking a his pan au chocolat.

"Oh", he groaned, "this is good. You have got to try one, this could become my new favourite". He passed the plate to Chloe – Clark already had one.

Chloe tried to suppress her last memory of chocolate and him. "No, thank-you", she turned it down although it did look tempting.

Lex's brow furrowed, she clearly wanted it so why wouldn't she take it? Was this her reluctance to take things from him again?

"I won't answer another question until you answer try it", he insisted.

"Fine", Chloe said and took the pastry and bit into it. "Oh God", she whimpered, "this really is good". The effect of her words were clear on both Lex and Clark but she could not supress the moan of pleasure as she took her second bite and her eyes drifted closed.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that".

Shaking herself a little, Chloe tried to cover, "I asked, which do you prefer, pears or apples?"

Lex snorted, that wasn't even a believable cover and they both knew it … but he would allow it. "Pears", there were some on the tray so he took one and bit into its soft flesh slowly and licked the juice from his fingers and lips.

"Figures that you would opt for the more pliant, sweet fruit", Chloe said under her breath trying to take her eyes off his movements.

"What about you?"

"I prefer apples, I like the bite and resistance", Chloe took a piece of fruit herself and bit into it. She was pleased with the muffled groan she heard, even if it was from the wrong man.

"Resistance?" Lex chuckled, "We are back to favourite positions".

"We were never on favourite positions, that was just in your filthy excuse for a mind", Chloe protested.

"Something tells me that you could probably match me".

"Lex, I could out do you in every aspect".

Lex's eyebrows shot up passed where his hairline should have been. But before he could come up with a comeback, Chloe remembered what her next question was meant to have been. "You have been accused of being a pompous ass who was promoted above himself just because of whose son you are".

"Glad to see that we are keeping things civil", he didn't look particularly offended.

"_So_, if you hadn't had your future decided for you what would you have done?" She asked, hoping that he would answer this one. He had promised to answer any direct question after all, and that was direct.

"Well that is a question that I have never been asked before", he was touched that she cared. "I loved science so if I had had the choice I would have liked to have studied that further but I am not sure what career that would have led to. Satisfied?" He couldn't resist asking. Why was it that every time he might be about to make some progress, he had to sabotage it?

"I suppose so".

"Shall we take a break before the breakfast gets cold?" Lex asked, thinking that he could use a break if he was going to go another few rounds with Chloe. Or to be more precise, if he was going to go through another few rounds that wouldn't end up with passionate sex on the coffee table.

Chloe looked over at Clark.

"Sounds good to me".

Food seemed to be the trick to keeping everyone civil, as the interview went quite well after that until it was time to go.

"And I have one last question", Chloe said, checking her watch; they still had some time before they had to get to school. "What's your favourite book?"

Lex pondered the question for a few seconds, he supposed that he should say something like The Art of War or The Prince but couldn't actually think that of the last book that he had read for pleasure rather than for instruction, until it came to him.

"I can't remember the name and I didn't read of it but it was set in 19th century England and it focuses on …."

"Oh dear, we seem to be out of time", Chloe cut him off.

"I hope that I have answered all of your questions", Lex said politely, but smiled evilly.

"Yeah, the only one left was 'What's your favourite colour?'" She stood to leave and Clark nodded to say that he was going to go on ahead and bring his car around to the front door. He felt awkward, how was he supposed to take his leave of Lex?

"Blonde", came Lex's response without hesitation, the second that the door had closed after Clark. She looked shocked and then annoyed, how dare he play with her again after what he had done? She was about to storm out. Lex should just let her go, let her be but he couldn't. "You didn't answer my question though".

"What question would that have been?" Chloe asked as she bent to pick up her phone.

Dare he ask it? It was likely to get him slapped but at least that would be some form of physical contact.

"Whether or not you have been spanked".

A range of emotions played across Chloe's features before she seemed to settle on one. She took two steps over to him so she was standing in between his legs. She allowed his eyes to travel up her body before she leant over him, one hand on each of his shoulders, she was so close now that she could smell his aftershave and was sure that he could feel her breath on his neck.

"If you have to ask that, then you didn't get as far through my box as I thought".

It had been a reasonable parting shot and Chloe should have felt pleased with herself, but she didn't, she just felt empty.

She had been attracted to Lex from the first moment that she had laid eyes on him, but had always just dismissed it as a school girl crush - something that she would get over, given time. She had eagerly listened to Clark's conversation, waiting for a mention of his best friend, she had had to school her features every time she had seen the billionaire. She would have died of embarrassment if he had ever known how she felt about him, she was just the annoying friend of his best friend.

It was only last summer that she had dared to dream, not that he would ever return her feelings but that he might see her if not as a friend then at least as someone who could be useful to him. The way that he had treated her since her return had told her that she had been wrong about that but she had still not been heartbroken because she had never known what she was missing but last night she had been in his arms, she had kissed him and he had revealed that he cared about her. For a few wonderful hours she had believed that maybe he felt some fraction of what she felt for him, for her, but he hadn't.

He didn't see her as a woman, he saw her as a little girl who didn't know what she was doing. He had only said that he was worried about her to comfort her as one would a child. If he trusted her then he wouldn't have deleted the pictures.

Everything that he had said to her in the last two days had been a lie, every time that he had made her feel special had just been manipulation. Or had it? She couldn't help it; even now she couldn't keep her emotions straight. Sometimes she thought that he might really care, but then she had to force herself to remember the photo.

No, Lex didn't care but what was worse, he knew that she cared about him and had used that against her. She had been a fool and she hated him for making her feel like that.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen**

"Hey Chloe", Lana beamed at her as she walked into The Talon, "You're here early. Looking forward to your party? Clark told me the good news. I am so happy for you and your Dad, I know that it has been hard for you", Lana gave her a sympathetic smile faltered as she placed a large box on the counter.

Chloe managed a small smile, "Yeah, I only had one class today and I had a story to work on so I came here. Thanks, I will pass along your congratulations to my Dad".

Lana's smile waivered and went over to sit across from Chloe. "We are friends, aren't we Chloe?" She asked.

"Yes, of course, why do you ask?" Chloe wondered.

"You have been so kind to me, you let me live with your and were there for me when I needed you and I didn't even know what was going on with you when you were having all of those problems with the Luthors", Lana looked more than a little ashamed of herself.

"You couldn't have known about that, I didn't tell anyone", Chloe shrugged it off.

"And you went through so much over the summer and, I don't know, at first this year I thought that you seemed better. You seem happier, more confident; your wardrobe has definitely got better since Lois has been around", Lana said, then realised how that sounded and hoped that Chloe wouldn't take offense.

"Hey", Chloe protested but couldn't help but grin at the same time. She had thought that she had been very subtle about her little make-over.

"You know that I'm just teasing. But something is wrong, isn't it? Especially these last few weeks. I heard that you went home from school early yesterday. I know that I have been really preoccupied with my stuff and Jason, but I want to be there for you", she stroked her friend's arm, "You can tell me anything".

"I know, thanks and don't worry, you have been a good friend", Chloe tried to console her.

"Chloe", Lana looked her straight in the eyes, "what's wrong?"

Chloe sighed. "The last few weeks I have been working on a story, I just finished it and it has taken more out of me than I thought it would".

"But it isn't just that, is it? There is something else, even more than you being worried about your father", Lana prodded, she had not been friends with Chloe for three years without learning a thing or two about getting information out of people.

The blonde nodded.

"Is it … Is it Clark?" Lana asked. "Look, I know that we said that we wouldn't talk about him anymore as our friendship was more important than any boy but I can't stand to see you like this. I know that he has been really worried about you, I know that he cares …" She trailed off as she saw a tear trickle down Chloe's cheek.

"Oh Chloe", Lana wrapped her arms around her. "What's the matter? Whatever it is we will fix it".

"I cannot believe that I am in this state about a boy!" Chloe laughed through the tears. "This is pathetic, I am not this girl!"

"It's okay. Love makes people act strangely; this doesn't make you weak just human", Lana reassured her friend, "It's Clark isn't it?"

Chloe shook her head.

"Is it that guy Jimmy, you told me about?"

She shook her head again.

"Well then, Chloe, who is it? Is it Pete? Are you sad because he left?" Lana racked her brains.

"No!" Oops, maybe that one had been a little too definite, which was a shame because she really did like Pete … just not like that.

"Then who?" Lana was growing exasperated.

Before she could go through ever boy in school Chloe took a deep breath and admitted, "It's Lex".

Lana was sure that she must have misheard. She replayed the sentence in her head. No, Chloe had definitely said Lex.

"Lex?" Lana repeated in disbelief.

"Yeah, about 6 foot, bald, multi billionaire", Chloe described him.

"Yeah, sorry I just never thought …" Lana trailed off.

"No, it's fine. I know how ridiculous the idea that he could like me is …"

"No!" Lana cut her off, a little too sharply. "I mean, yes I am surprised, but not because I didn't think that he would like you. On the contrary, I always thought that maybe he had a little crush on you. He always seemed to pay more attention to you than anyone else, always asked about you in some offhand manner when you weren't around. You were the one he turned to when he needed help. I just never thought that you would like him".

"Why not?" Chloe wondered.

"Well, I don't know." A shrug. "He just doesn't seem like your type, he is so … not Clark".

Chloe laughed.

"And you always argue with him", Lana continued. "You never let him have the last word or be right. And you don't dress any differently … that is why the change of wardrobe. It had nothing to do Lois arriving; it was because you were having a relationship with Lex".

"I wasn't, I'm not having a relationship with him", Chloe looked forlorn.

"Why not?"

"Because he doesn't like me". Ah, she couldn't believe that Lana was making her say this out loud!

"But after last summer?"

"After last summer he basically ignored me and I brushed it off, I thought that it would be alright, that I would forget him. But I didn't and the other night when I was in Metropolis following a lead I came across him and … we spent some time together and it was fantastic", an unbidden smile graced her features. "Last night we kissed and I thought, I really thought, that maybe he liked me."

"What happened?" Lana demanded.

"I kissed him, and he kissed me back", Chloe said simply.

"Wow, Chloe!" Lana was impressed with the girl's courage. "But, then what makes you so sure that he doesn't like you now?"

"He deleted a photo from my phone".

Lana's brow furrowed as she tried to follow Chloe's logic. "So I am sure that he likes you, now it turns out that you like him. You kissed him and he responded enthusiastically … and you think that he doesn't like you based on the fact that he deleted a photo off your phone? Chloe, I've got to tell you that for a smart girl, that doesn't make any sense."

"It was a piece of evidence. By deleting it, he showed that he has no respect for me", Chloe explained.

"Or if it is evidence then maybe he was just trying to protect you", Lana offered an alternative explanation.

Chloe sighed. She would have loved to believe that, but it didn't make any sense; when you loved (or even just cared about someone) you didn't treat them like that. She tried to further explain the situation to Lana, "Then when I interviewed him, sometimes he was normal, others he made me so angry that I could have punched him".

"But that is how you act with him; you challenge him on everything! Maybe he was just giving you a taste of your own medicine?" Lana suggested.

"Lana, please, I know that you are only trying to help but don't give me false hope", Chloe groaned putting her head in her hands.

"I'm not", Lana insisted, "I am just trying to get to the bottom of this. You really think that he doesn't care at all?"

"Only in the protective Neanderthal who doesn't want me fawning all over Clark way, but that isn't love or respect or trust", Chloe said thinking back to their interview that morning.

"No", Lana admitted, "but it's a start, and it might just be a symptom of deeper feelings."

"How can you tell?" Chloe asked, a twinkle of hope in her eyes.

"Easy, we are going to make him jealous until he comes grovelling on his knees to you".

"We are going to do what?"

"You heard me", Lana smiled wickedly. "Listen, we have five hours until the party and while I know that you only need four hours sleep a night, even you need that. Go home have a nap and I will come over after I have set up and help you get ready, you are going to look so good that Lex and every other man there is going to fight to get your attention. I think that stimulating Lex's inner caveman will get the reaction we want".

"And if it just proves that he doesn't care?" Chloe voiced her worry.

Lana smiled sympathetically, "Then at least you will know. But I am willing to bet anything that you want, that he does care!"

"Well it is worth a try, I suppose", Chloe shrugged. "But how are you going to make sure that Lex comes?"

"Easy, I am going to call him and tell him not to even think about coming".

Chloe burst out laughing and threw her arms around her friend, "I've missed you!"

Lex growled at his laptop. He had spent the better part of the day working and striving not to think about Chloe; he could not afford to let himself be distracted by her. And so he had dealt with the repercussions from their late night adventure, then LuthorCorp work, then he had come up with business strategies for the next quarter … then for the next annum. Now he was sat there with nothing left to distract him from her.

Maybe he had a new email telling him of some crisis that would require his immediate attention, he hoped as he opened his emails. Damn it, only two news ones. Still, either one could contain some terrible piece of news that would take him from Smallville, possibly for weeks.

He saw the sender of the first email and prayed that it was nothing of the kind. He opened Chloe's email and read it. It was to the point and a little terse, he wondered if she knew how much her indifferent tone in the email would affect him. He was willing to bet that she did. Still, he knew that this was a courtesy on her part and that he had to read and check the article.

When he had finished it, he was impressed. She had reported accurately and articulately – as he had known she would – but had also walked the fine line between providing information and respecting privacy … that was something she must have learned over the summer because Lex had read all of her articles before then, as well as the newer issues of The Torch, and, while he had always been impressed with her zeal, she had often stepped well over the line. But not this time, this article was perfect! He felt even worse about deleting the picture; maybe he could have just explained the situation to her.

"No", he shook his head. This article was only one problem in their relationship, he had been right to begin with, he should just avoid her that way he was the only one who would get hurt. It would be terrible to know that she was with Clark but she would be happy and he would strive to be happy for her. He wouldn't go the party that night.

He just had to write his reply to Chloe and then he would be done. As his gaze returned to the screen, his brow furrowed, why was Lana sending him emails? She didn't own The Torch anymore.

"Dear Lex,

I know that Clark invited you to a little party that we are having for Chloe at The Talon tonight at 8:00pm, but I think that it would be better if you didn't come. It might make people a little uncomfortable.

Best wishes,

Lana Lang"

What the fuck? Who the hell did Lana Lang think that she was to tell him when he would or would not enter his own property? If she was doing this, then it meant that there was something going on that he didn't know about. That settled it; he was going to that party that night!

Chloe woke up from her nap, refreshed and looking forwards to dancing the night away … and after that getting back to a more normal sleeping pattern. She had made a decision: she was Chloe Sullivan, not some snivelling girl who went to pieces in The Talon over a boy so whether Lex liked her or not, whether he even showed up, she was going to have a great time that night and put this all behind her.

She went into her new en suite and enjoyed a steaming, vanilla scented bath which went a long way to making her feel even better. By the time that Lana arrived to help with her makeover, Chloe had applied honey scented lotion and blow dried her hair straight – she had taken Lois' unsolicited advice from her last trip not to go for over the top fluffy hair styles when trying to seduce – and felt quite equal to dealing with Lex Luthor or anyone else.

"Nice room", Lana commented as surveyed her surroundings.

"Yeah, better than the apartment", Chloe agreed, her attention taken by the burgundy dress that Lana was holding. "Is that what you are wearing to the party?" Chloe asked, "I think that it is safe to say that Jason is going to stand up and pay attention".

"No, not me", Lana smiled, "You".

Chloe looked quizzically at her.

"I brought this dress for you while I was in Paris as a thank-you gift for having put up with me the year before", Lana explained, "but I heard about your 'death' the day that I brought it so I packed it away and didn't look at it after that. To be honest, I forgot about it until now".

"I am so sorry that we had to deceive you too Lana but …"

"It's okay, I understand, it was for your safety", Lana smiled, and handed the dress to Chloe.

"Thank-you Lana, this is so sweet, but you know that you didn't have to do this, we were happy to have you", she said.

"I wanted to", Lana assured her, feeling a little guilty that Chloe seemed so touched by a simple gift.

Chloe's fingers trailed over the rich velvet, "It is beautiful. You really saw that and thought of me?" Chloe questioned. It looked like something that Lana would wear, Chloe was not sure that she would have ever even tried it on, she would have been too afraid of seeing her reflection in it and realising that she was still the kooky duckling.

"Yes, of course. Honestly Chloe, I don't think that you realise just how far you have come since Freshman year. You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, and what's more impressive is that you are nicer than you are pretty. Now try it on, I think that it should fit", Lana urged her.

"Okay", Chloe said, feeling herself blushing.

A few minutes later she emerged from the bathroom to look in her full length mirror and show Lana.

"Oh my! You look amazing Chloe!" Lana squeaked as she clapped her hands together.

As she looked herself over in the mirror, Chloe had to admit that Lana was right; she did look amazing! The dress was an off the shoulder, knee length and formfitting one that highlighted her curves without showing even a hint of cleavage. It was plain except for the panel across her bust which was delicately embroidered to catch the eye.

Chloe turned to the side to examine her reflection. Well, if Lex did come it was safe to say that he wouldn't look at her as a child anymore. She ran her hands over the material, making sure that it was smooth before turning back to face the mirror full on. She considered her hair, the straight look seemed too severe now, maybe a few soft curls would be nice?

She heard Lana rummaging through her bag, "Okay, now for your make-up, Lex isn't going to know what hit him!"


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter Sixteen**

Chloe threw her head back and laughed at Tom's, at least she thought it was Tom's, joke. Whichever one he was, his eyes were transfixed on her mirth filled features, just as they had been all night. This flirting thing was easy when you got the hang of it. She had always thought that she was quite good at it, but it was nice to have confirmation after the disasters that had been Clark and Lex. For once Chloe was in control, and she liked it.

The Talon had been closed for her private party – although how Lana had managed that as she no longer owned the place and had informed the actual owner that he was not to come, Chloe did not know. Lana Lang was a mystery, just when you thought that she was completely self-obsessed she did something like this. She also apparently knew many nice football players to bring to parties.

It seemed like the entire varsity team was at Chloe's table that night and she didn't think that she had exchanged more than a handful of words with the majority of them before. Everyone who had come through the door that night had come over, greeted her and congratulated her on her LuthorCorp scholarship – apparently Lana had told everyone about that rather than her Dad's promotion, a fact Chloe was grateful for as she didn't want people knowing what they had been through in the last year.

As she sipped another brightly coloured drink, Chloe decided that this was what she had been missing all of these years. She had been so busy worrying about: Meteor Freaks, cracking stories, Clark, finding the truth out about Lionel, her father, not to mention Lex that she had never really just been a frivolous teenager.

Well, that was it. From now on she was going to have more fun! She wasn't going to worry about anything else, at least not until tomorrow morning.

Even as she thought that, her eyes strayed over to the door again. No Clark. No Lex. At least she was sure that Clark was actually coming, no one knew about Lex.

"Who are you looking for, beautiful?" One of the football players asked, seeing her distraction.

"Oh no one, just a friend", she said.

"Clark?"

"Yes", she lied.

"I am sure that he will be along in a bit", Tom shifted closer to her and slipped a muscular arm around her shoulders. "You know that he is always late, and I can keep you more than occupied. Might even make you forget all about him".

"Yeah, that would be good", Chloe tried to inject her voice with some enthusiasm. She looked at Tom, he was handsome. Easily as tall as Clark, broad shoulders, sandy blonde hair with dark eyes. A girl could fall for him quite easily, so why was she finding it so hard? Maybe it was because he had never paid any attention to her because Lana had done her makeover, or because he was a nice guy who she could actually stand a chance with, or maybe it was just because he wasn't …

"Good evening Chloe", a voice broke through her thoughts.

She didn't have to look up to know who it was, his presence was overwhelming. Just hearing his voice sent shivers up her spine.

"Good evening Lex", she stood to greet him. He looked ridiculously handsome in a dark sports coat, crisp white shirt and jeans; he was even quite clearly freshly shaved – something Chloe always found appealing. She felt her knees growing weak.

He gave her a charming smile and held out a bouquet of flowers to her, "Congratulations, I understand that we are celebrating your scholarship".

"Um, yes, thank-you", she accepted the flowers and was shocked when he leant in to give her a peck on the cheek. She shouldn't have been surprised she supposed, it was a perfectly normal thing to do, just not for them. To distract herself from the scent of his aftershave that she couldn't help breathing in, she smelled the flowers.

"I love daisies", she gave him a smile.

"I guessed", he smiled back, "I am afraid that I don't have the wealth of information you do".

"Yeah, well", she blushed, "few people do".

"Am I to take it from the party that you have decided to accept the scholarship?" He inquired politely, trying to keep himself in check.

"Yeah", she said. God she felt like a hypocrite, she had made such a big deal of not accepting anything from him and here she was agreeing to take his money. "I mean, my Dad works for the company so I am eligible and I have checked the grades of the other students, mine are by far the highest".

Lex nodded, oddly pleased that she had checked. "I told you that you deserved it".

"I know".

"You didn't believe me?" He asked. His tone was kept deliberately soft but Chloe could see the glint of something else in his eyes.

"Honestly?"

"Honestly."

She shrugged. "I don't think that you are the vicious, power hungry monster that people make you out to be but I think that you are capable of lying and multiple other deceptions if it suits your purpose".

"And what purpose would that be?" It sounded like an honest answer, which he appreciated as well as the fact that she did not think him a monster, but it pained him that she didn't trust him.

"I don't know. You see the thing is Lex, that you are always playing some larger game. You could throw yourself in front of a speeding bullet, only just escape with your life and I still wouldn't be sure that it wasn't part of some bigger plan", Chloe explained, hating the hurt she saw in his eyes before the steel took hold.

"It sounds like you do think that I am evil", his voice was devoid of emotion.

"No", she shook her head. "I may doubt your methods but never your motives. I know that you think that you are doing the right thing, the problem with that is that you treat people like pets. You care, you want to look after them, but they have to do exactly what you say and when you say it and if they don't …"

"If they don't, what?"

"If they don't you try to make them. You expect them to give you everything, even their secrets but you never reciprocate. Your friendship with Clark didn't have to end. Our friendship didn't have to either …"

"Our friendship?" The words were like a punch to the gut. He had never quite been sure what he had had with Chloe but to hear that she had thought that it had been a friendship and that it was now over made him sick to his stomach. He wanted to sink to his knees and beg her not to leave him alone, but he was a Luthor so such conduct was out of the question.

Chloe blushed, misunderstanding his question. "Well okay friendship wasn't the correct word, our … whatever it was. You decided for whatever reason that you were not going to speak to me and that was it, I didn't get a say in the matter."

"Chloe, I …"

"I know, you tried to provide for me like you would for a puppy you stopped loving but wouldn't abandon. But I didn't see you Lex. Don't you understand that friendships aren't just about fixing things? You don't just turn up on a friend's doorstep because you need something or think that they do, you turn up because you want to spend time with them".

They realised at the same time that she was unwittingly describing his friendship with Clark.

"Whatever", she blew it off. "It doesn't matter. Thank-you for coming, it wouldn't seem right celebrating here without you. So, sit, meet everyone".

He managed a tight smile, "Chloe, one last thing". He reached out to hold her arm to stop her sitting back down. Before their moment together ended, he had to know. "You don't think that I would ever try to hurt you or forget about you, do you?"

"I never thought that you would try to hurt me, and I don't think that you forgot me anymore either. You proved what kind of man you could be last night", she said looking almost sad for a moment. Last night he had been brave and noble and listened to her, this morning he had shown that he didn't care and couldn't respect her.

He breathed a sigh of relief and removed his hand from her arm.

"But I'm not a toy you can pick up and put back down whenever your feel like it, whatever the reason", her stare bored into him, "and I am not a child or pet incapable of making my own decisions".

With that she sat down. The group of seniors around the table had been chatting amongst themselves while he and Chloe had been talking but now they swallowed her back in. It was with a pang that he realised that this was where she belonged, with people her own age. Clark would be along soon and would no doubt make his move on Chloe. He should leave. He was just about to when Chloe looked back up at him and asked, "Aren't you going to sit down, Lex?"

She looked almost disappointed at the thought of him leaving and so he sank into a seat and she introduced him to her new friends. They all seemed like nice enough jocks, although he couldn't imagine that any of them could keep up with her mentally, but maybe that wasn't what she wanted. She certainly seemed happy enough with them, especially with the attention that the blonde one was paying her.

The conversation stayed on rather safe topics of conversation, American Idol seemed to be the favourite and he was glad to see that Chloe did not appear to be a viewer either.

"Do you like to sing?" Lex asked Chloe without thinking.

She looked at him in some confusion, "Yes. Why do you ask? Do you?"

"No, I'm no singer. I can only play the piano. I just wondered, you just seem like the kind of girl who prefers to be involved in things rather than watching them", he explained. Was it really so odd that he wanted to know more about her?

She nodded, "I like to sing but only in my bedroom into my hairbrush".

Lex chuckled, "I heard that you and Lois did a rather lively rendition of several rock hits when The Talon held a karaoke night".

"Yes, we did", Chloe laughed. "Who needs talent when you have oomph?"

"Karaoke", one of the football players, David possibly, got over excited. "Lana said that she would be karaoke at some point tonight, go on Chloe it is your party. You have to sing".

Lex was about to tell him that Chloe did not _have_ to do anything she didn't want to when she replied for herself, "Maybe later".

"Oh come on!" He complained.

"Tell you what, you show me yours I'll show you mine", she offered with a saucy smile.

"Yeah", he grinned back.

"She means, that if you go sing she will", Lex explained. How could Chloe like these boys?

"Oh okay", he loped off onto the stage. For the next few minutes they were treated to his rendition of some rap song that Lex didn't recognise. He looked over at Chloe to see if she was finding it as terrible as he was but saw that she was giggling as Tom whispered something in her ear. She swatted his arm playfully, "Tom, you're so bad; you can't say things like that".

Lex's jaw clenched, he was relieved when the other player stopped singing and said, "See Chloe, I sang. Now hold up your end of the deal". At least that would get her away from Tom.

"Oh, alright", Chloe said getting up, "Let me show you how it's done".

As she rose Lex was sure that he saw Tom pat her bottom, he was going to tear his head off. He got to his feet to do that but Chloe just brushed passed him, thinking that he had got up to let her get to the stage.

"Thanks", she mumbled as their bodies pressed together for a few seconds as she moved away from their table.

The contact distracted him from his mission for a few minutes as he watched her climb onto the stage admiring the swing of her hips in that dress. He groaned, how many other men had noticed that? He spared a glance back at the table and knew that they had all. That was it, there was going to be bloodshed.

"Lex, what are you doing?" Clark asked coming up behind him.

"Nothing", he said from between gritted teeth. He couldn't crack skulks together at Chloe's party. Now that Clark was here at least they would stop ogling her, they must know that she was very soon going to be Clark's girl.

"Chloe is about to sing", he informed Clark as he sat back down and fixed his eyes on Chloe. She was going through the list of songs she could choose from.

"Come on Chloe", the football player, who had just sang, teased her, "Get on with it".

"I can't find one that I like", she called back.

"Chicken".

"Fine, I'll do it acappella", she snapped before she could think better of it. Lex smiled, he loved that about her. She seemed to doubt herself after that but Lex knew that she wouldn't back down, she looked over at him and he gave her an encouraging smile.

Chloe shook her head as if asking herself why she was doing this, but she knew that if she just kept her focus on Lex that she could do it. This was what she had wanted after all, his attention so she could tell whether he did have any feelings for her or not. He was certainly jealous, so that was a start.

"Okay, I'm not sure what to sing so I will go with my Dad's favourite", she announced soundly almost nervous.

There was general clapping and supportive cheers.

Chloe looked down at her shoes, as she got her bearings, and began: "The very thought of you and I forget to do \ The little ordinary things that everyone ought to do". Everyone became completely silent as Chloe's beautiful voice filled The Talon.

It was easier now that the song washed over her, she closed her eyes, "I'm living in a kind of daydream \ I'm happy as a king \ And foolish though it may seem \ To me that's everything".

She paused to catch her breath, then she opened her eyes and stared directly at Lex. She didn't mean to but she was drawn to him. Her voice became more sultry as she continued, "The mere idea of you, the longing here for you".

Lex groaned. God, he would be locked up if anyone ever found out the thoughts that her voice put into his head.

"You'll never know how slow the moments go till I'm near to you", she began to move slightly to the imaginary music, "I see your face in every flower \ Your eyes in stars above \ It's just the thought of you".

Lex tried to control his now searing gaze, afraid that she would pick up on it and become nervous but the smile that touched her lips told him that she had noticed and it just seemed to make her bolder. She held eye contact with him as she finished, "The very thought of you, my love".

The place erupted into cheers and clapping, everyone was on their feet. There was even a call for an encore but Chloe just blushed a little before saying, "No, sorry only one performance per night. I will relinquish the stage to my good friend Lana who I know has been dying to show her Britney off", Chloe then scampered off the stage before Lana could get her revenge / consider throwing something at her.

Lex was at the edge of the stage holding his hand out to help her down before he knew what he was doing.

"You were amazing", he breathed.

"Thanks", she took his hand and let him help her down. "But you needn't sound so surprised".

She was trying to play it cool, she knew that she had just made her feelings for him far too obvious; she could only hope that he hadn't noticed. She didn't see any pity in his eyes, so she figured that he probably hadn't worked it out. She thought far too highly of Lex to believe that he would take pleasure in thwarting her hopes and dreams, he probably thought that the kiss yesterday had just been because she was scared that she was about to die.

"Yeah Chloe, that was great", Clark said as they approached the table, although he seemed a little more distracted by Lana who was now on stage and had started singing a Britney Spears medley.

"Thanks", she said again sitting back down next to her footballer and bathing in their rapture for a few minutes before Tom asked her. "Want to dance?"

"Sure", and with that they joined most of the student body on the dance floor.

"So what's going on?" He asked her.

"What do you mean?" She asked as she swayed to the rhythm.

"I mean you are clearly hung up on that guy and he is about ready to kill every male in the place who has seen you in that dress. You guys fighting or something?"

"It is that obvious that I like him?" She asked, dismayed.

"Yes, and that he feels the same way. And if you haven't worked it out then I guess that you aren't exactly fighting, more that you haven't got together yet?" He questioned.

"Basically, but I am not sure if we ever will. I am sorry if I gave you the wrong impression earlier", Chloe apologised.

"Don't worry about, I know that you wouldn't intentionally lead me on. But now that I know, what say we give him a little nudge?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Something like this", he wrapped his arm around her waist so that their hips ground together, then ran his other hand up her back as he moved to whisper in her ear, "Can you see his reaction?"

"He's turning red", Chloe reported with glee.

"Good", Tom grinned, he liked helping people and Chloe seemed like a nice girl.

Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck and saw Lex tremble slightly; he turned to talk to Clark. Chloe beamed delightedly. When he turned back to them, pointing to indicate something to Clark she span around in her dance partner's arms so that he was holding her hips and still moving together. She leant back against his body, her derriere pressing into him.

"He looks around ready to explode", she whispered.

"I'm not surprised", Tom smiled. "I reckon that he will be over here in five, four, three, two …"

"May I cut in", Lex asked as he grabbed Chloe and pulled her to him.

"One", Tom winked at her, gave Lex a mock salute and headed back to the table to ask Clark what Lex had said to him.

Tom was brave, Chloe had to give him that. She knew that Lex would never hurt her and even she was a little concerned by the look on his face. Luckily she felt her own anger rising to meet his, how dare he just interrupt her dance and order her around? She might have been enjoying herself.

"What do you think that you are doing?" They hissed at each other at the same time.


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter Seventeen**

Lex grit his teeth as he stepped out his Porsche; he was not in a good mood. He was supposed to be in control of the situation, he was a Luthor damn it! But here he was, about to attend a high school party not only without invitation but having been specifically told that he ought not to attend. He was about to potentially humiliate himself, he should just go back home to the mansion and forget all about it. His hand hovered over the handle but then he moved away his car with a shake of his head. Who was he kidding? He wasn't going anywhere. And it wasn't because Luthor's didn't back down, it wasn't because he wanted to see what Lana was playing at, it was because he wanted, strike that, needed to see Chloe. All noble ideas of letting her get on with her life could be put on hold for just one more night.

Even before he entered The Talon he could hear the music blaring, and see a large movie-like poster announcing that the coffee shop wasn't open that night as it was closed for the celebration of "Chloe Sullivan's Geek!" Lex couldn't resist a smirk, he had no idea how Lana had got that sign made in only a few hours, she must have worked her butt off to get the party ready and had clearly gone to town on it. He supposed that he should really feel a pang of guilt that he might be about to ruin all of her hard work but he didn't. Everyone else could go to hell if it meant that he got to see Chloe.

Lana's handiwork extended inside The Talon. There were streamers and balloons everywhere with another large banner of Chloe smiling cheekily at whoever was holding the camera with writing next to it, "She's going to set the world on fire and travel all over it, but for tonight she is still ours so let's celebrate her. Congratulations on the scholarship Chloe". Lex smiled, nice sentiment and it looked like his security team were going to go travelling, they would enjoy that.

He looked around for the object of his affections. It looked like half of Chloe's year had turned up but it was fairly easy to make his way around as they were mostly sitting down at the tables although a large enough space had been cleared in the centre to allow for the erection of a stage with space to dance around it.

Finally he tracked Chloe down and he felt as if all of the air had been knocked out of his lungs. She was sitting and obviously flirting with someone Lex thought was on the football team. He should leave, he really should, he thought as he made his way over there.

She wasn't even looking his way, she hadn't been waiting for him, she was laughing at someone's joke. As she did this the fabric of her dress shifted slightly revealing even more toned leg. Well that settled it, he had better stay just to look after her.

When she finally did realise that he was there she stood up and greeted him. Lex's gaze travelled the length of her and somehow he resisted the urge to take his jacket off and cover her up until he could get her alone. Instead he handed over his flowers and kissed her cheek – honestly he should have been praised for his restraint.

He tried to keep things friendly after that, no doubt when Clark arrived Chloe would forget all about him and the football players, although maybe as Clark's ex-friend it was his job to keep an eye out for Chloe when he wasn't around …

It was a relief when Clark did actually arrive, now he could calm down and accept that Chloe wasn't his, she wanted to be Clark's and if that dress and the amount of flirting she was doing was anything to go by, she intended to get her man before the night was out.

Even Clark could not be immune to her charms tonight and that song, it was the sexiest thing that he had ever heard and she had sung it to Clark in front of all of the these people, for a moment he had conned himself into believing that it had been for him but it couldn't be, she was in love with Clark. Had been for years.

He had barely got over the song when she started dancing with that boy. Lex's jaw dropped as he watched them grind together, he had imagined Chloe dancing with him like that but he didn't know that she actually knew how to.

"Clark", he turned to the farm boy who seemed rather too distracted by Lana on stage singing, "Are you going to do something about that or not?"

"What can I do? If she wants to sing she can".

"No, not that. That!" Lex pointed to where Chloe was dancing – if it could be called that.

Clark just looked confused and Chloe's dancing became even more sexual. Lex knew logically that she wasn't doing anything that most of the other people on the floor weren't doing, but that didn't make it any better.

"Aren't you ever going to make your fucking move?" Lex demanded.

"It is too late, she is with Jason".

"Not on Lana, on Chloe!" Lex had to fight hard to keep his temper in check; it wouldn't do to ruin Chloe's party by screaming the place down.

"No, of course not. Chloe and I are just friends".

Lex stared at him, dumbfounded. How could he be so bloody obtuse? Chloe was on the floor, obviously trying to spark Clark's jealousy into action and he was just ignoring it? He wasn't even going to protect her as her friend? Lex glanced back at the floor.

"You really aren't going to stop that? You aren't going to stop that oaf touching her?"

Clark just shook his head. From what he could see Chloe wasn't doing anything that risqué, so he didn't think that she was under any sort of influence and she seemed perfectly content, now if Tom seemed like he was forcing her then that would be another matter.

"Then I bloody well am", Lex snarled and before Clark could say anything Lex had Chloe in his arms.

"What do you think that you are doing?" They hissed at each other at the same time.

"I am taking control", Lex growled, trying to ignore how warm she felt in his arms as he moved against her.

"I thought that we had been over this already Lex, you don't own me. I am not a doll or a pet, you cannot control me", Chloe hissed back. Heavens, she was beautiful, Lex thought even as her eyes crackled at him with anger.

"First. Clearly I cannot control you; if I could then you would not be on the floor dry humping that imbecile", he ground out.

"I think that Tom is quite nice", Chloe replied cheekily.

Lex gave her a look which told her that he clearly thought that she had lost her mind, "Yeah, I'm sure that he was just being a gentleman, he would probably have been a knight in shining bloody armour when he fucked you senseless on the coffee bar".

"Hey …"

"And second", Lex spoke over her. "We have not been over this already. You spouted some psycho-babble bullshit at me TWICE! And I didn't get a chance to respond or even ask or what the hell you were going on about".

"Oh, so now I am the one who is unreadable and mysterious?"

"Yes!"

"I'm not the one who as good as ignored me for months …" Chloe could feel her temper getting out of control. How dare he do this to her? He was supposed to get jealous and reveal his emotions, not tell her off.

"No, but you are the one who keeps running whenever I make any overture of friendship. This morning. The morning before that. You won't accept anything from me", the scholarship didn't count, "but I am expected to listen to all of your wacky theories about what is wrong with me, well I think that it is time for a few home truths Chloe Sullivan. I have several things to say to you and you are going to listen to them for once".

"And if I refuse?" She challenged, more on principle than anything else.

Lex looked hard at her. Then he cradled the back of her neck in his strong palm and brushed his lips against hers. Really, that was all that he had done. It had been little more than a peck, it was Chloe who deepened the kiss and he had had no power not to respond. And his obvious enthusiasm spurred her on even further; she held on to the lapels of his sports jacket for all she was worth as his tongue ravished her.

When the thirst for oxygen became so great that they were forced to pull away, he announced cockily, "You won't", then he added in a whisper, "but if you feel the need to be contrary then I will throw you over my shoulder and take you somewhere private anyway. So it's your choice, do you want to draw a great deal of attention to yourself?" He looked at her dress, yes maybe she did. Well, that was fine with him.

"No", she said. "Where do you want to talk?"

"There is a private movie room at the back, no one will disturb us there", he didn't add 'and as it is sound proofed they won't hear the screaming either'.

"Okay", Chloe agreed hating how sorry she was for the loss as he stepped away from her but then he took her hand and led her through the crowds. They headed through the back and down a long flight of stairs until they reached a locked door, Lex opened it, let them in and locked it behind them. Chloe looked around, she hadn't been down here since the Talon opened. She wasn't sure why they didn't use it more, it would be a fantastic place to do movie nights. Lex then indicated that she should sit on the couch at the very back where the light was best and she agreed, seating herself and looking at him expectantly.

On the dance floor it had all seemed so easy, but now that he was sat there across from her he didn't know where to start. He knew that he had to tell her everything; it was the only way that she could understand and begin to trust him. So he said the first thing that came to him: "Chloe, I am sorry. I know what my father is like and I should have been paying more attention to what he was doing at the school, he out manoeuvred me in that regard and I have no excuses".

"Lex, that wasn't your fault", Chloe replied automatically, because it was the truth.

"Yes, it is. He is my father, it is my responsibility to make sure that he doesn't hurt anyone", Lex ran his hand over the top of his head.

Chloe couldn't respond to that, she just didn't know how. That was a large burden for anyone to take on.

"When I found out that he had a hold on you, I used you to get my revenge. Yes, I offered you an out but I always knew that you wouldn't take it", Lex admitted.

Chloe remained silent, she wanted to tell him that it was okay, but it seemed like he needed to talk and that if he didn't he would never get it out.

"I have done terrible things, but you have to know that what you said about me thinking that you were a pet or a doll is utter crap!" He accused.

"It's not!" Chloe shot back. It was amazing that he could make her go from feeling sorry for him to angry in under a second.

"It is. You don't like being told what to do, I don't like being told what I do or don't feel", he strove not to shout at her.

"Sorry", Chloe muttered.

Now came the hard part. He wasn't going to stand on the side-lines for her to end up with someone who wasn't good enough for her, he would tell her how he felt and if that didn't work he would just have to deal with the heartbreak. Taking a deep, sustaining breath, he said, "From the day that I met you I was interested in you. I could never forget about you. I will admit that I have tried to hide my feelings, at first because I thought that there was no chance that you would ever return them and then because I thought that it would be safer for you".

She opened her mouth but he cut her off.

"I know what you are going to say, that it's not my decision. But Chloe, it is. Not because I think that I own you or because I feel culpable. Chloe, I have lost everyone I have ever cared about and I have never loved anyone the way that I love you. The idea that something could happen to you is more than I can bear, more than anyone should have to bear", his voice cracked slightly towards the end.

Chloe's eyes were wide.

"Darling, you have to believe me", his tone was beseeching. "When I didn't tell you about the plan to blow up your house it wasn't because I didn't trust you or didn't think that you could handle it, it was just because if I had told you I could have been overheard. The reason I didn't come to visit you over the summer wasn't because I didn't care, I ached to be near you but I couldn't risk leading anyone to your house, I knew that my father had men tailing me".

He stroked her cheek; his tone was soft and his eyes were so tender that any girl would have fallen for him. "And when you came back I stayed away because I wanted to protect you, I thought that you would be able to get on with your life happily with Clark." His tone became harder, "I was willing to give you up for him, for your to be happy but not for you to go grinding on some tosser".

"You were willing to give me up for Clark?" She yelled. "What the fuck Lex. You really didn't think that I didn't deserve a say in the matter?"

"I didn't think there was even a possibility that you would choose me over him", he bellowed back, loosing what little control still remained over his temper. "You have been rather hung up on the guy for at least the last three years".

"Well if you had asked me then you would have known that I would have chosen you in a second", she screamed.

There was silence.

"You would have?"

"Yes, I would have", Chloe repeated, missing the emphasis that Lex had put on the "would have". Then something occurred to her, "But this morning. Even after everything that you did last night you took my picture. You proved that you don't trust or respect me".

"Oh for the love of … Chloe! When are you going to get it through your thick skull that I love you? If you had had that picture you would have realised who he was and got yourself hurt". Lex wasn't sure that even the soundproofing and Lana's singing was going to be enough to drown them out anymore.

"You don't trust me to know how to look after myself?"

"It doesn't matter what you can or can't do. The moment you saw those numbers, you would have typed them into the internet, then they would have tracked you. It would have only taken a lapse for one second for your life to be over!" Lex was getting to the end of his tether now, she just didn't seem to understand – or rather, she wasn't willing to understand. For God's sake, she had just said that she _would have_ chosen him, surely even if she no longer felt the same way they could work on this. That was what they should be focusing on, not some bloody picture.

"You could have just told me that", Chloe huffed.

"And you could have just told me what you thought my not letting you have the photo meant! That would have saved us a lot of time as well."

Chloe gnashed her teeth.

Lex smirked.

"Has anyone every told you that you are very sexy?" He inquired.

"Yes".

She was doing her best to stay angry with him and not respond to his statement but he could see a slight softening in her eyes. He slid closer to her and wrapped his arm around her.

"But I would prefer to hear that you trust me", she added trying to resemble an icicle.

"I do honey, but you don't leave the box with Pandora", he cupped her face with the hand which wasn't around her shoulders. "You know you aren't perfect yourself".

Humph. "That isn't what my Dad says".

Lex smiled. "You are far too good, stubborn, don't communicate your feelings, make up ridiculous theories on other people's actions rather than just asking them – something you then accuse others of -, you won't let other people try to take care of you and worst of all …"

Chloe narrowed her eyes at him.

"You still haven't told me you how you feel after forcing me into telling you everything". He had to hear her say the words whatever they were, although over the course of the last few minutes he had begun to hope that maybe she felt the same way about him as he did about her.

"I didn't force you to do anything", Chloe pointed out smiling knowingly. She shouldn't draw this out anymore for him, she should just tell him, that would be the kind thing to do … but all of this power was rather exhilarating.

"When you look at me with those eyes, as if I have any choice", Lex murmured. He had seen the smile, if she didn't love him too then she wouldn't have smiled, she would have pulled away …

"Maybe there has been enough talking", Chloe giggled as sought out his lips.

This kiss was even better than their last two: they were alone, not about to die and had time for leisurely exploration. Their tongues danced as their hands ran the lengths of their bodies, it was only when Chloe's hands found their way under Lex's shirt that he had to break of the kiss.

He voice was breathless with need, "Please, darling I need to hear you say it".

"I love you too Lex", Chloe _finally_ admitted and pulled him in for another searing kiss.

Just as she had succeeded in pushed his sports coat off his broad shoulders, there was a cold gush of air coming from the vicinity of the door … that should have been closed.

"Luthor did you really think that you could get away with this? You take my cousin off the dance floor in plain sight of everyone and think that a lock is going to protect you from me. What are you doing to her?" Lois barrelling in, only to a stop as she saw them embracing.

"Great timing, Lo", Chloe complained as she buried her head in Lex's chest.

"So that is why Lana didn't want me coming down here", Lois said more to herself than to them, then putting her hands on her hips, "You told her before you told me?"


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter Eighteen**

Chloe snuck into the mansion. Well, snuck might be a bit of an overstatement as the Luthor security was rather tight, what she had actually done was sweet talk the guards into letting her passed without telling Lex – not that she couldn't have got passed them if she had wanted to. Still, she had no desire to scale a wall at 8:00am on Saturday morning, that wouldn't suit her purpose at all.

As she was scurrying along the corridors towards the office, she grinned with glee; Lex wasn't going to know what had hit him.

Slowly she opened the office door and peered around it to see Lex lying face down on the massage table. Perfect. Chloe sauntered into the room and heard him mumble something that sounded vaguely like a greeting.

It just went to show that it always paid to be friendly, Chloe thought as she made her way over to him and opened her bag, thanks to her budding connection with the kitchen staff she had found out all about Lex's plans for the day. He had had several calls to make that morning, starting at a shocking 4:00am but by 8:00 he was supposed to be finished and his masseur was coming. Or at least that's what he thought.

Chloe admired the man lying at her mercy, and unconsciously licked her lips. His long, lean form was spread out before her in a most appetizing manner. She had known that he had broad shoulders but had never seen them in their full glory before, his back also looked strong as well. Chloe shook herself, how on earth could a back look strong? She was going funny in the head, but being an investigative reporter she didn't let one little diversion stop her from exploring.

From what she could make out through the thin sheet covering his posterior it wasn't just the cut of his trousers that had been making him look good. His legs were also nicely toned; she liked that in a man. She really wasn't sure why he had such a hard time during High School – according to Clark – because she wouldn't imagine anyone not being impressed with him, maybe it had been jealousy on the other boys' part, she pondered.

Apparently she had mused on this point for a little too long as she noticed Lex putting his hands on the side of the table and bracing as if to lift himself and see what was going on. Oops! She didn't want him to know that it was her and cotton on to her plan so she grabbed one of the bottles off the side. Hearing her begin to move again, Lex settled back down.

Chloe poured a small amount of the oil into the palm and warmed it in her hands before as she moved back to Lex's side. It smelled very nice and she realised that that was what extra smell Lex always had was, it wasn't cologne it was soap and this. No wonder she had never been able to find out what scent it was … in earlier years she had been planning to buy some for Clark for his birthday. She had noticed that Lex had smelled very nice the first time that she had met him, although she also liked the fact that only people that he allowed really close to him would ever know that, it was a bit like being let into a secret. Oh no, she thought to herself, she was pontificating on his smell, she really was getting sappy. She would have to get a hold on herself.

Deciding that the best way to distract herself was to get on with the task at hand she finally decided that the oil was warm enough and began to glide her hands across his skin to spread the liquid. She delighted in the way that his muscles jumped a little at her touch initially and as she heard his sigh. She had always known that he was well made and kept in shape but it was strange to think that such power could be contained in such soft skin and designer clothes.

Her hands travelled down his back, and then back up, over his shoulders and down his toned arms as she tried to make sure that the oil was evenly distributed and that he was warm enough. The research that she had done earlier that morning had assured her that this was very important.

She knew that he got a massage every day so she was surprised that he was quite as tense as he seemed to be. She wasn't entirely sure that she was doing this correctly, as she had never given a massage before, but tried to remember the instructions as best as she could and follow them. As she got to work on the various knots she heard him moan again, so she assumed that she was doing it correctly.

As she continued Lex seemed to become more and more relaxed and finally Chloe thought that it would be safe to progress to part two of her plan. She moved to the top of the table to massage his scalp, as she did so she was standing right next to his pile of clothes, she smirked. She knew that he would never leave sensitive information far away from him, she had seen him slip a USB pen into his trouser pocket many times in the past. She had deduced that that was where any information such as that picture would be. The problem had been getting to it. This had been the only way to get to his clothes without him noticing; it was easier than trying to break into his safe at night.

She continued to stoke his head, just to keep his relaxed of course, not because she enjoyed the feel of his soft, smooth skin under her finger tips or because she loved the slightly noises he sometimes made in the back of his throat. She briefly considered not steeling the information, this really wasn't the right thing to do but even as she thought this, her fingers found their way into the in the pocket of his trousers.

"Wrong pocket darling", Lex's voice reached her ears.

Chloe closed her eyes. She had turned to reach the clothes and now her back was to him, she could hear him getting up. This was embarrassing.

"Come on Chloe", she could practically hear the smirk in his voice, "If you are going to steal from me then you should at least be able to look me in the face".

"You knew all the time?" She asked, still frozen in position.

"Of course". She could hear the sound of the sheet being pulled around his midriff. "I guessed that you would be up to something, you don't take defeat lying down … a quality that I normally admire, I must add. Besides, I could smell your perfume, hear your gasp, plus that isn't the normal way of giving a massage."

"Right. And I wasn't stealing", she said, still not facing him.

"You can turn around now, I promise that I am covered", he reached out and pulled her gently towards him by the belt as that was the only part of her he could reach. When she was closer he grasped her by the hips and spun her around. Chloe allowed him to do this, still too shocked to let go of his clothes.

Lex gently prised the clothes from her hands and put them on the side.

"See what I meant about the Pandora and the Box?" He smiled at her. "Don't worry about it", he said, as he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, "It happens to everyone. Guess we know what your obsession is."

"You really aren't angry?" She checked, scolding herself for still avoiding his gaze. For some reason, his fury was always easier to deal with than his understanding.

"No, just frustrated that you won't actually look at me", he ran his hand down her arm before holding her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing it, snaking the other arm around her.

She bit her lip, her cheeks flushed. How had she got herself into the mess?

"Chloe", his voice was low and commanding. She was not going to get out of eye contact, he had worked out that she did this when really put in a bind. Well, there was one sure fire way to get a reaction with Chloe: shock or anger.

He swatted her bottom.

"Lex", she squeaked and finally made eye contact.

"Want me to kiss it better?" He raised an eyebrow.

"No", she stuck her bottom lip out in a mock pout as she rubbed the area as if he had put a lot force behind it than he really had.

He grinned and pulled her into his lap and kissed her lower lip, gently teasing her. "I told you not to worry about it, but if you want to go play with my stick go right ahead"

Chloe went distinctly pinker and unconsciously shifted against him; she could feel him through the material of the sheet.

Lex smirked, "Dirty minded girl", he got hold of the pen and gave it to her. "Here you go. If you use my computer you are completely safe, you cannot be tracked", he informed her.

She looked him quizzically, was this some sort of test?

"I'm not trying to trick you darling, if you really can't control your nosey inclinations go for it. If this is what it takes to get it out of your system", he coaxed her. "What are you afraid of?"

"Nothing", Chloe said. She looked at the pen, then at him, then at the pen again and then … she was off. A smile tugged at the side of Lex's mouth, he had known that she would not be able to resist. He took a minute to admire the view before slipping his boxers and then jeans on. He didn't want to make Chloe uncomfortable; although he was under no misconception that she was some blushing virgin as pure as driven snow – she had had a relationship with Jimmy and clearly had a healthy drive and curiosity – he knew that she was not as experienced as she had made out to him. She had only done that because she tended to over exaggerate when nervous. He could take things slow with her, or at least he would try to.

Chloe was typing away on his laptop and almost shaking with excitement as the image loaded.

Lex got up and moved around the table so that he could witness her reaction to the photo. He crossed his arms over his chest.

"You bastard", Chloe exploded.

"You don't like it?" He tried to look innocent. "I thought that it was sweet".

"Don't even try it", Chloe glared at him.

"How does it feel to be outmanoeuvred for once?" He inquired.

"For once? You are always one step ahead", she exclaimed in exasperation.

"Just trying to keep you with you", Lex closed the laptop.

Chloe looked at him incredulously. "So basically, we are spurring each other on to outdo the other? Imagine what we could achieve if we teamed up", she suggested, before basically undoing the idea by adding, "I'm not going to give up you know".

"I had figured that out", Lex pulled her to her feet, "and I'm sorry to have to say that this the one thing that I will continue to thwart you on"

Chloe shook slightly for a few seconds as she went through a hundred possible retorts and the possible reactions that they would elicit. Any one of them would be good, but would probably end with them getting into a fight and that was certainly not what Chloe wanted at that moment, she was not unaffected by the fact that she was standing this close to a shirtless Lex and had a different perspective from the front. Very nice, very little, if any, hair which led her to believe that maybe the nice always cleanly shaved appearance she liked about him was in fact because he shaved a lot or whether he had lost all of the hair from his chin when he had lost the hair on his scalp during the meteor attacks.

Wait, she was supposed to be thinking of a response, damn it Lex was distracting standing there with his sexy chest and expectant expression. Oh great, now her brain wasn't working on responses so much as positioning. So Chloe went with the default, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Minx", he growled and leant in to kiss her but only got her cheek as she turned her head at the last minute as an idea occurred to her.

"Are you really sure that you can thwart me?" She asked as she trailed her hand down his chest, "I bet that I can find it very easily".

Lex couldn't help but moan as she slipped her hand into his front pocket.

"Nothing else of value in there love", he said as her fingers wriggled around. She should not have been able to have such a strong effect on him.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that", she said before slipping her hand into his other pocket and pulling something else out. "What's this?" She asked.

"If you don't know, I think that we need to have a conversation very soon", Lex looked at the packet of condoms – for that larger man, of course.

"Very soon? Rather over confident aren't we?" She inquired, once she had actually looked at the item she was holding and realised what it was.

"I like to think of it as just being prepared", he shrugged trying to see if she was really angry about this.

"Such a boy scout", she quipped, "Always this prepared?" She teased, trying to work out if this was something new or whether he always carried protection. She knew that he had had more experience than she did, and didn't want to hold it against him, but couldn't help but wonder.

"I try to be", he stroked the side of her face and looked deep into her eyes. "Chloe, I don't want you ever feel like there are things that you can't tell me, or ask me if you need to".

"Right back at you".

"Okay, well there is nothing that I need to ask you right now, what's passed is passed", he didn't add that it had better be passed because he had come quite close to ordering a hit on Jimmy Olsen before she had admitted that she loved him. Now he considered himself to have _carte blanche_.

"But", he continued, "you should know that I get regular check-ups so can be sure that I am STD free and I haven't had a sexual relationship since my last one, and I don't intend to be in one with anyone but you … ever again". He couldn't blame her for wondering, it was just good sense to check.

"Ah … so you know that I am going to rock your world", Chloe tried to joke, neither of them were particularly good at the really emotional stuff. It was sweet of him to reassure her, but now she wanted to push passed it.

"Is that a promise?"

"Yep", she pulled him down and kissed him senseless. They acted on instinct, Chloe's hands running over Lex's torso and his trying to get her out of her jacket before splaying her against the wall.

"Oh Lex", she moaned as he kissed his way down her neck.

"No", Lex pulled back from her.

"Did I do something wrong?" She looked genuinely concerned.

"No sweetheart, nothing", Lex assured her as he grabbed her and lifted her into his arms bridal style.

"Lex", she giggled, "what are you doing?"

"I am taking you to my bedroom", he told her.

"I can walk you know."

"I know, Chloe and I know that this isn't your first time but it is our first time together and I don't know … I have a lot of experience and I mean a LOT of experience but I have never really been in love before, not even with Helena. Now as happy as I will be to fuck you senseless in every room, every position and do everything that our combined twisted minds can come up with, just this once I want to make sure that it is everything that is should be", he tried to explain himself. God, this had to Alexander speaking because Lex (and little Lex) were screaming at him take her against the wall.

"Aww … who would have thought that Lex Luthor would be such a sap", Chloe cooed, just to get a rise out of him. It worked; he let out a low growl which just made her giggle more as he carried her to out into the hallway.

"I'll show you how much of a sap I am", he somehow made it sound like a threat.

"Oh, I'm going to be ravished by a sap", Chloe wound him up as she ran her hands over him as they made their way into his bedroom.

"Damn right you are", he said as he threw her onto the bed, which was scattered with rose petals and surrounded by lit candles.

"Wow, you were really sure that you were going to score today! I'm not sure whether to be flattered that you went to all of this trouble or insulted that you think that I am so easy".

"I would never make the mistake of thinking that you are easy", Lex assured her as climbed up onto the bed with a predatory grace that Chloe was sure had to be practiced. Once they were face to face, he ran his hand down her side and felt something strangely shaped in her pocket. "What's this?"

"If you don't know that Lex, I think that we are going to have a conversation", she tried to quip at him and not become at all flustered as his fingers slipped inside her pocket.

He laughed. "You really thought that I was that easy?"

"Yeah. Well partially that you are easy, partially me being irresistible", Chloe took the packet off him and tore it open, she hated getting worked up and then having to work out how to open the bloody thing. As she did this, she continued to speak, "But mostly it was Lois wanting to make sure that I was safe and prove that she was a better, more understanding friend than Lana".

Lex laughed again at that - surely this wasn't right; no woman had ever laughed in his bedroom before, and they certainly hadn't made him do so. "

Yeah, I cannot see Lana providing you with protection".

"Lois also took it upon herself to have the conversation with me and add in her own helpful hints about what men like", she gave him an all too innocent look as her hand travelled lower, "Do you like this Lex?"

"Yes", his voice grew horse.

"Enough to give in to me?" Her expression grew even more innocent yet seductive.

"On anything except the picture", he wasn't falling for that look.

"Well that's a shame as I really want the one I saw today for my screensaver", she couldn't keep up the studied innocence and her face broke into a grin.

Lex chuckled against her neck, which he had resumed kissing. "I think that I can manage that, as long as it remains private".

"Oh it will, I don't want anyone else seeing you … in that way".


	19. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_Several years later …_

Chloe wound her way amongst the people in the crowd, stopping only to nod at a few people, a fake smile plastered on her face. These kinds of events had never really been her thing; they were only made bearable usually by her husband's presence. Unfortunately being the President of the United States came with certain responsibilities which simply could not be avoided and meant that he was travelling more than ever before. She was proud of him, but sometimes remembered their time in Smallville fondly, when they had had so much time to just be together.

Still this was what she had signed up for; she couldn't say that she hadn't known what she had been getting herself into when she had married him.

Chloe tore down the path towards her father and Lex, springing first into one man's arms and then the other. "Did you see me?" She asked them both excitedly.

"Yes", they both answered, Lex happily, her father a little mistily.

"It's alright Dad", she consoled him, giving him another hug.

"I know baby, it is just so hard to believe that you are all grown up and have just graduated from Yale, it seems like only yesterday I was bringing you home from the hospital.

"Dad", she complained but still smiled. "I'm only graduating, it is not as if I am getting married or some …" She saw the looks passing between her father and Lex. "You are going to propose to me?"

"Well, that was the plan", Lex chuckled as he took the ring box out of his pocket. "It was supposed to happen tonight at dinner but I suppose that here is as good a place as any". He got down on one knee, not paying any attention to the fact that there were still other people milling around congratulating their own graduates.

"We have been together for just over four years now, and I know that things haven't always been easy between us. I work a lot and you were here studying but I wouldn't trade a single second of it. I have been sure that you were the only woman I wanted to spend my life with since we met in the club that night …" he saw Gabe's face, "in that church club", he covered.

Gabe looked pleased with that.

"But I waited to do this so that you would have the chance to spread your wings and finish your education. You know what my plans for the future are, and I know what yours are and I think that we can make them work together. It is important for me that you know that this is not something that I have not considered and that if you are not ready I can wait …"

"Well I can't", Chloe said and knocked him to the ground as she kissed him.

Gabe looked away uncomfortably, he was going to lose his little baby … He liked Lex but there was no question that he wasn't good enough for her, no one was. But his one consolation was that his daughter would probably end up running the country through him.

She scanned the throng as she reached the bar and perched herself on a stool. Her contact would be arriving soon and she had already worked out all of the possible exits from the building in case they had been followed by anyone she wasn't expecting.

Everything looked in order, the most difficult part would be losing her security detail if they came to suspect anything. She might be a spy in her own right, but very few people knew that. To her security team she was just the first lady, and they knew that Lex would have their heads if anything happened to her.

She smiled as she saw the youngest agent entering the bar. It was not so strange that he would be there; this was a private function for the rich and influential after all, there was security everywhere, that was why this was the best place to meet. Chloe turned back around and pretended not to have noticed him as he approached her.

After all these years of waiting she was finally going to be able to solve the only mystery that had ever escaped her. She felt a thrill go through her, for a moment she thought of Lex and wondered whether she was doing the right thing but squashed the thought. This was her job and she wasn't going to give it up for any man, besides, she had warned him years ago that she wouldn't give up.

The agent turned informant coughed to get her attention and then greeted her, "Good evening Mrs Luthor".

"Good evening Simon", she smiled at him. She had decided that there was probably nowhere that they wouldn't be seen, there was so much security around her everyday so in plain sight would be best. No one would think that she plotting against her husband, or worse doing something silly like having an affair, if she did it in the open. They would all naturally assume that it must be above board.

He lowered his voice slightly as he said, "It wasn't easy but I got the codes".

Chloe smiled, "I got others. Shall we?"

"After you", he said taking a step back so that she could pass. As Chloe left the party she nodded to several more people and Simon noticed that most eyes in the place were on her, especially those of her security detail.

"How do we lose them?" He asked her in a whisper.

"We don't, unless they smell something fishy", she replied back as she smiled to someone as they passed, "that would look suspicious. It is the same reason why we met here rather than you just coming to the White House - that would have looked odd too. The mere fact that we are out in the open means that people will think that we have nothing to hide".

"Right", he said, he felt like he should be taking notes. He didn't want her to think badly of him and so he tried to remain calm as they entered the limo and drove to the White House. They chatted of this and that knowing that they could be overheard by the driver. Once they were back at her home she led him into the family living room and told her other staff that they might retire – she added with a whisper that she wanted to talk with Simon alone, her main body guard Clark Kent (a.k.a. the man of steel) had asked her to keep an eye out for his prodigy while he was away that week.

As soon as she had closed the door she clicked a button on a remote in her pocket.

"Right", she marched back over to him. "I made sure that there was fake footage on the security cameras for all of tonight, so we can move around this room and the adjoining one (Lex's office) freely. We just have to click the button as we leave and all will be well".

"Great", Simon said a little nervously as he handed the codes over to her.

"Simon, are you alright?" Chloe asked looking at him worriedly. "You don't look well".

"I'm fine". She didn't look convinced. He started to sweat. "I am just a little nervous, it is not every day that I break into confidential files", he explained.

"Really?" Chloe looked surprised, "You should try it more often. I like to do it with breakfast in the morning, gets the brain going much better than Sudoku or crosswords, I find".

He laughed nervously but stopped when he realised that it didn't appear to be a joke.

"Well come on, and don't worry we aren't doing anything really wrong and you won't get in trouble for it", she assured him.

"I know", he muttered under his breath as he watched Chloe run over to Lex's safe, take out his laptop and begin to hack her way in. It really was quite impressive just how far she could get without the codes; it was only at the very last minute that she actually needed them. As she typed the code that he had he had given her, she inquired conversationally, "You said that they were hard to come by?" She looked over the top of the laptop at him.

"Not really?" He said, paling. Then tried to correct, "Yes".

"Oh no", she groaned as she read his expression. The laptop started flashing at her, a warning message filling the screen.

"Fuck it", she swore.

"I'm sorry", Simon moaned as he took a few steps back, "they were already on to you, they said that I had to do it or else I would get in trouble. They won't hurt you, they work for the President after all (even if not directly) and you are his wife …" he trailed off as he saw a figure come out from behind the curtains.

He was shrouded in shadow and Simon couldn't make out exactly who it was, but there were any number of advisors who would have liked to see Chloe's influence over Lex curtailed, any number of them who could be behind this.

"Get out", the figure snarled, before adding, "and turn the lights on fully, on your way out; I want to be able to see the first Lady when I deal with her".

Cursing himself for his cowardice, Simon did as he was told. Once outside the office he made to leave the building completely but his conscience pulled him back. He was torn. On the one hand his duty was to his country and to the President, the First Lady had been hacking into confidential files without her husband's knowledge and the man who had approached him originally with this proposal had been a high ranking military officer. He should just do as he was instructed. On the other hand, this man might be out for personal gain, he might try to blackmail the First Lady or even try to hurt her.

Damn it. It had all seemed so clear when the proposition had been made to him, now he was having doubts that he was on the right side. He had to at least check that she was alright before he left. He pressed his ear to the door and listened hard.

"What the fuck do you think that you are doing?"

"Hacking into top secret files, what does it look like? And since when do you use that kind of language with me?"

Simon gulped, the woman had guts, he would say that much for her.

"What do you think that your husband would have to say about that?"

"Depends on his mood, anything from laughing to a threat about spanking that he is too much of a pussy to carry out".

"Is that so?" There was a snarl and the sound of heavy footsteps.

"What are you?" She questioned and then yelped.

As Simon heard the First Lady's exclamation, his hand found its way to his gun. He couldn't let her get hurt, if that man had laid a finger on her then he had to intervene. But what if he hadn't? What if she had just seen a spider or something?

"Stop backing away from me or you'll get a lot more of the same treatment".

"Promises, promises", she did not seem particularly concerned.

"Are you seriously rolling your eyes at me?"

"Yes, I'm not afraid of you!"

"You hack into private government files, get your hands on classified information …"

"Clearly I did not get my hands on classified information!"

"Well, no, but only because I outmanoeuvred you".

"Meh, for today possible but tomorrow is another day".

Simon breathed a little more easily, it didn't sound as if he were actually going to hurt her.

"Tomorrow? You'll be lucky if you can fucking walk tomorrow once I get through with you".

That was it, Simon could not let anyone threated her with serious physical harm, screwing his courage to the sticking post and knowing that his career was probably over after he crossed the man he kicked the door open and shouted freeze as he burst into the room, gun drawn.

The light was on and he could make out the scene clearly. He turned scarlet.

"Get out".

"Yes Mr President", he gulped.

As the door closed Lex nuzzled his wife's neck, "It is so hard to find good spies".

"I know darling, that is why you have me".

He laughed, "Yeah, my special agent blonde".

"Lex", she breathed, "there is something that I have to tell you … I'm naturally a brunette".

The End

Thank-you very much to my readers especially those of you who reviewed – I'm not looking anyone in particular, but you know who you are. I hope that you enjoyed it and will keep an eye out for my upcoming Chlex fics. :D


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